IT security and control firm Sophos has welcomed news that
authorities have charged a 35-year-old Brazilian with conspiring to
cause damage to computers around the world.
According to reports, Abreu Neto controlled a botnet of 100,000
compromised computers, and leased access to third parties for
25,000 Euros. These zombie PCs could then be used to send spam,
launch distributed denial-of-service attacks or commit identity
theft. Neto now faces up to five years in prison and a fine of
more than $250,000.
"The authorities should be congratulated for their efforts in
investigating this case and prosecuting the guilty parties," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant at Sophos. "But, what about the
100,000 infected computers that were unwillingly turned into foot
soldiers for this criminal scheme? While catching the bad guys is
the first step, it's essential that these innocent victims also
clean up their PCs - without this, it's likely they'll just be
playing a waiting game until another hacker exploits their lack of
security and recruits them to another zombie network."
Dutch authorities apprehended Abreu Neto on July 29th, following
assistance from the FBI's New Orleans field office and the Cyber
Section of the Brazilian Federal Police. Neto allegedly worked
with 19-year-old Nordin Nasiri of the Netherlands, to run the
zombie network and lease infected computers.
Zombie computers - are your PCs under someone else's
control?
Zombie computers can be used by criminal hackers to launch
distributed denial-of-service attacks, spread spam messages or to
steal confidential information. SophosLabs estimates that more than
99 percent of all spam today originates from zombie computers.
As spammers become more aggressive, collaborating with virus
writers to create armies of zombie computers, legitimate
organizations with hijacked computers are being identified as a
source of spam. This not only harms the organization's reputation,
but can also cause the company's email to be blocked by others.
Sophos ZombieAlert™
advises service subscribers when any computer on their network is
found to have sent spam to Sophos's extensive global network of
spam traps, and provides rapid notification to customers if their
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are listed in public Domain Name
Server Block Lists (DNSBL). This information helps customers
locate, disinfect, and protect these systems from future
attacks.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.