Category Archives: A Little Sunshine

Includes investigative blog posts meant to shine a light on the darker corners of the Internet.

Are Megabreaches Out? E-Thefts Downsized in 2010

April 19, 2011
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The number of consumer and financial records compromised as a result of data breaches in 2010 fell dramatically compared to previous years, a shift that cybercrime investigators attribute to a sea-change in the motives and tactics used by criminals to steal information. At the same time, organizations are dealing with more breaches than ever before, and most data thefts continue to result from security weaknesses that are relatively unsophisticated and easy to prevent.

U.S. Government Takes Down Coreflood Botnet

April 14, 2011
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The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI this week were granted unprecedented authortiy to seize control over a criminal botnet that enslaved millions of computers and to use that control to disable the malicious software on infected PCs.

The target of the takedown was “Coreflood,” an infamous botnet that first emerged almost a decade ago as a high-powered virtual weapon designed to knock targeted Web sites offline. Over the years, the crooks running the botnet began using it to defraud owners of the victim PCs by stealing bank account information and draining balances.

IRS Scam: Phishing by Fax

March 29, 2011
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Scammers typically kick into high gear during tax season in the United States, which tends to bring with it a spike in phishing attacks that spoof the Internal Revenue Service. Take, for example, a new scam making the rounds via email, which warns of discrepancies on the recipient’s income tax return and requests that personal information be sent via fax to a toll-free number.

Microsoft Hunting Rustock Controllers

March 28, 2011
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Who controlled the Rustock botnet? The question remains unanswered: Microsoft’s recent takedown of the world’s largest spam engine offered tantalizing new clues to the identity and earnings of the Rustock botmasters. The data shows that Rustock’s curators made millions by pimping rogue Internet pharmacies, but also highlights the challenges that investigators still face in tracking down those responsible for building and profiting from this complex crime machine.

Big Scores and Hi-Scores

March 23, 2011
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Business gurus have long maintained that time = $, but that doesn’t mean playtime necessarily detracts from the bottom line. As many corporations have discovered, employees tend to be more productive when they have time to give their brains a break, and gameplay is the perfect escape. So it’s not surprising that some cyber criminals have taken this lesson to heart, and are crafting crime machines to include games that allow them to steal money and set hi-scores at the same time.

Homegrown: Rustock Botnet Fed by U.S. Firms

March 21, 2011
47 Comments

Aaron Wendel opened the doors of his business to some unexpected visitors on the morning of Mar. 16, 2011. The chief technology officer of Kansas City based hosting provider Wholesale Internet found that two U.S. marshals, a pair of computer forensics experts and a Microsoft lawyer had come calling, armed with papers allowing them to enter the facility and to commandeer computer hard drives and portions of the hosting firm’s network. Anyone attempting to interfere would be subject to arrest and prosecution.