[ISN] Spain arrests three accused of running huge botnet

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 01:50:58 -0600 (CST)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10462718-245.html

By Elinor Mills
InSecurity Complex
CNet News
March 2, 2010

Authorities in Spain have arrested three men accused of operating a 
massive botnet composed of 12.7 million PCs that stole credit card and 
bank log-in data and infected computers in half of the Fortune 1,000 
companies and more than 40 banks, according to published reports.

The botnet "Mariposa," which means butterfly in Spanish, first appeared 
in December 2008 and grew to be one of the largest botnets ever, The 
Associated Press reported. It spread the Butterfly worm via removable 
drives, MSN Messenger, and peer-to-peer programs and targets Windows XP 
and older systems.

Unlike many underground hackers, the alleged ringleaders of the 
operation were not skilled programmers, but had contacts who were, 
authorities said.

"They're not like these people from the Russian mafia or Eastern 
European mafia who like to have sports cars and good watches and good 
suits--the most frightening thing is they are normal people who are 
earning a lot of money with cybercrime," Cesar Lorenza, a captain with 
Spain's Guardia Civil, which is investigating the case, told the news 
service.

[...]


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Received on Tue Mar 02 2010 - 23:50:58 PST

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