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Loading ...Mariposa botnet taken down
Madrid (ip-192.com): Computers in more than half of the Fortune 1,000 companies and at least 40 big financial institutions were infected with a virus that stole credit card numbers and other data. The Mariposa botnet, the Spanish word for butterfly, controlled more than 13 million PC’s in 190 countries.
The Spanish police arrested the masterminds behind one of the world’s largest botnets. "It was so nasty; we thought we have to turn this off. We have to cut off the head," said Chris Davis, CEO of Defense Intelligence Inc, which discovered the virus last year.
Mariposa was programmed to secretly take control of infected machines. The virus would steal login credentials and record every keystroke on an infected computer. "Basically they were going after anything that would make them money," Davis said. Mariposa initially spread by exploiting vulnerability in Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer Web browser. It also contaminated machines by infecting USB memory sticks and by sending out tainted links using Microsoft's MSN instant messaging software, he said.
The arrested men have not been named beyond their screen names of netkairo, jonyloleante, and ostiator. They are said to be Spanish citizens in the 20s or early 30s.
While the botnets command and control centers have been dismantled, millions of computers remain infected.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] connected to a botnet called Mariposa, the Spanish word for butterfly (ip-192.com reported here). The botnet controlling almost 13 million people did have enough power to bring down the [...]
[...] Guardia Civil arrested three suspected Mariposa Botnet operators in February (ip-192.com reported here and here). The suspected creator of the botnet was now arrested by the Slovenian police. "We are [...]