Not long than last friday, while driving back home from work,
we were wondering with a colleague : after all, who are these guys behind such sophisticated attacks such as storm worms, strations etc…
It is clear that the power of these creatures and their profesionalism are fa from being originated by students amateur or traditional virus writers.
The most intriguing thing is how are recruited these guys?
Obviousply you don’t send your CV as virus writer or something similar.
At least I have not yet met something like “A virus creation company seeks malware writer, a very exciting position to get with very rewarding package!..”, or maybe monster and other are filtring them ?
well.. you have to read the following story to have a clue of what is really going on.
Excerpt:
09:44:07 10.11.2007 added by nowayout
An American computer security consultant on Friday admitted using massive botnets to illegally install software on at least 250,000 machines and steal online banking identities of Windows users by evesdropping on them while they made financial transactions.
John Kenneth Schiefer, 26, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to four felonies, including accessing protected computers to conduct fraud, disclosing illegally intercepted electronic communications, wire fraud and bank fraud. He faces a maximum sentence of 60 years in federal prison and a fine of $1.75m, according to documents filed Friday in federal court.
Schiefer, who went by names such as “Acid” and “Acidstorm,” has long been a fixture in underground hacking circles. He sometimes adorned his instant message handles with phrases such as “remember the name or feel the pain” and “crime pays, and it also has an excellent benefits package.” He was employed at a Los Angeles-based security firm known as 3G Communications, where he sometimes carried out his crimes, according to court documents.
The plea agreement caps an investigation involving the FBI that began in 2005, said Assistant US Attorney Mark Krause. He declined to say if charges would be filed against several conspirators mentioned in court documents, who went by names including “revolt,” “Harr0,” “butthead,” “pr1me” and “dynamic”. The case is the first time a crime related to botnets has been charged under US wiretap statutes.
Schiefer, referred questions to his attorney, who was out of town and didn’t immediately return a phone call.
According to prosecutors, Schiefer and several accomplices developed malware they dubbed “spybot” that made vulnerable Windows machines part of botnet. They controlled the zombies using servers from various hosting companies, herding as many as 250,000 machines at a time. Schiefer controlled the machines using computers at his home and place of employment.
The malware contained a sniffing feature that siphoned PayPal credentials from Protected Store, a section of Windows that stores passwords users have opted to have saved. Although Pstore, as the Windows feature is often called, encrypts the information before storing it, Schiefer’s malware was able to read it, presumably by escalating its Windows privileges.
Source
http://astalavista.com/index.php?section=news&cmd=details&newsid=103
It’s scary isn’t it? I have a kind of smile in my face but not for so long i’m afraid..probably thousands of malcodes to be detected again.
Anoirel
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