Slovenian Police Arrest Suspects Behind ‘Mariposa’

According to certain news obtained, police are investigating 3 Slovenians who are suspected of building the largest botnet in the world that took control of millions of PCs across the globe. SOPHOS published this on July 23, 2010.

Explaining botnets, security specialists state that they are malware programs, which anyone can always command-and-control remotely, with the botnets employing more-and-more advanced C&C infrastructures. Moreover, the malware controller can also upgrade it anytime he wishes.

It's alleged that the suspects including 1 woman and 2 men developed a computer virus, which they used to infect over 13m PCs in over 190 countries. Further, the virus also infiltrated 50 Fortune companies of the world out of the total 100 along with numerous government agencies, corporate networks, universities and financial institutions, globally. The virus reportedly, was an extremely destructive malware ever created.

It's also alleged that the suspects assembled the PCs inside the botnet once they contaminated the systems with W32/Rimecud a group of polymorphic malware. This malware proliferated itself through several techniques such as making its own replicas on detachable storage devices or using peer-to-peer file sharing and instant messaging systems.

State the reports that while seeking to collect Internet banking, password and credit card details the attack turned out as an immensely big cyber-criminal operation.

Moreover, police stated that several homes in Maribor a city in Slovenia were raided where the alleged hacking criminals had examined as well as captured numerous PCs.

They (police) also feel certain that the suspects had an immense responsibility in the Mariposa botnet's assembling, following which the suspects who were formerly pupils handed over the malware for a price to Spanish cyber-criminals. These criminals then propagated it online.

In the meantime, police wouldn't substantiate the arrests' details although they stated that with the cooperation of the FBI, they were investigating the case. Google published this on July 23, 2010.

However, having wreaked havoc all over the Web, botnet Mariposa whose name had been derived from the word "butterfly" in Spanish language was deactivated during late 2009. Subsequently, the hackers going by the nicknames - "Ostiator," "Jonyloleante" and "Netkairo" were arrested in Spain.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/4/2010