 Storm
Worm Copycat Gang kick up their own ‘Storm’.
28/11/2007 |
A copycat spam gang
known as the Celebrity Spam Gang, due to their habit of using celebrity
names in malware, has launched an effort to compromise PCs that rivals the
botnet created by the infamous Storm Worm Gang that we wrote about in
August.
The botnet is
currently responsible for 20 per cent of junk mail in circulation and is
now controlling a network of compromised computers large enough to rival
the massive 'Storm Worm' botnet.
A botnet is a
network of computers that are under the control of hackers, usually with
the rightful owner unaware that their machines have been hijacked.
Botnets, with
their computing power, are used to distribute vast amounts of spam by
email that usually contains malware that will allow the hackers to steal
personal information such as passwords.
If not caught,
the spammer's botnet networks will grow exponentially.
It is believed that
the gang has been building up its botnet since August 2006 when it began
sending out messages with infected attachments that commonly promise nude
images of celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears. Other
tactics include disguising malware-tainted attachments as free games or
Windows Security Updates.
All this is fairly
standard stuff, yet the gang has enjoyed considerable success and we are
very concerned that many computer users are still falling for this obvious
spam.
The Celebrity Spam
Gang is following the Storm Gang's template of spamming out malware in
order to expand its botnet, in turn building the capacity to generate
greater numbers of junk mail messages.
A New Zealand-based
internet security company deliberately infected a test computer with the
Celebrity Gang botnet and then closely monitored its behaviour and the
make-up of spam it was instructed to send by the spammers. They were able
to match this spam against 23 per cent of all spam seen in circulation for
the previous month.
Although the
Celebrity Spam Gang had been on the companies radar for some time, the
volume of junk mail it was responsible for came as a surprise.
We recommend all PC
users not to open executable files attached to email messages from
addresses they do not recognise or trust and to refrain from opening any
message that purports to feature nude celebrities.
Source:
The Register and nzherald
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