Cybercrime Kingpin Pleads Guilty
An Estonian man who ran an organized cybercrime ring that infected more than 4 million PCs in over 100 countries with moneymaking malware has pleaded guilty in New York to wire fraud and computer intrusion charges.
Tag Archives: DNSChanger
Haunted by the Ghosts of ZeuS & DNSChanger
One of the challenges in malware research is separating the truly novel innovations in malcoding from new nasties that merely include nominal or superficial tweaks. This dynamic holds true for both malware researchers and purveyors, albeit for different reasons. Researchers wish to avoid being labeled alarmist in calling special attention to what appears to be an emerging threat that turns out to be old news; the bad guys just want to avoid getting scammed into paying for an old malware kit dressed up as the new next big thing.
Court: 4 More Months for DNSChanger-Infected PCs
Millions of PCs sickened by a global computer contagion known as DNSChanger were slated to have their life support yanked on March 8. But an order handed down Monday by a federal judge will delay that event by 120 days to give companies, businesses and governments more time to respond to the epidemic.
The reprieve came late Monday, when the judge overseeing the U.S. government’s landmark case against an international cyber fraud network agreed that extending the deadline was necessary “to continue to provide remediation details to industry channels approved by the FBI.”
Feds Request DNSChanger Deadline Extension
Millions of computers infected with the stealthy and tenacious DNSChanger Trojan may be spared a planned disconnection from the Internet next month if a court approves a new request by the U.S. government. Meanwhile, six men accused of infecting and managing the huge collection of hacked PCs are expected to be extradited from their native Estonia to face charges in the United States.
Half of Fortune 500s, US Govt. Still Infected with DNSChanger Trojan
More than two months after authorities shut down a massive Internet traffic hijacking scheme, the malicious software that powered the criminal network is still running on computers at half of the Fortune 500 companies, and on PCs at nearly 50 percent of all federal government agencies, new research shows.
The malware, known as the “DNSChanger Trojan,” quietly alters the host computer’s Internet settings to hijack search results and to block victims from visiting security sites that might help scrub the infections. DNSChanger frequently was bundled with other types of malware, meaning that systems infected with the Trojan often also host other, more nefarious digital parasites.
‘Biggest Cybercriminal Takedown in History’
The proprietors of shadowy online businesses that have become synonymous with cybercrime in recent years were arrested in their native Estonia on Tuesday and charged with running a sophisticated click fraud scheme that infected with malware more than four million computers in over 100 countries — including an estimated 500,000 PCs in the United States. The law enforcement action was the result of a multi-year investigation, and is being called the “biggest cybercriminal takedown in history.”
