Koobface Gang Working Unrestrictedly

Five men, supposed to be guilty of circulating a tarnished virus-- Koobface worm on social networking sites like Facebook, were noticed in St. Peterburg, Russia, according to several investigators at Facebook and self-governing computer safety experts, says The Times of India's report dated January 16, 2012.

Anton Korotchenko, Alexander Koltyshev, Roman Koturbach, Syvatoslav Polinchuk, and Stanislav Avdeiko are those five men who are involved in the Koobface worm responsible for destroying millions of computer users. The creators of Koobface worm have earned millions of dollars every year by compromising computers.

A member of the gang, called Koobface gang, has transmitted the coordinates of its offices on a regular basis by reading through location-based social network Foursquare, and distributing it via Twitter posts. Images on Foursquare display the gang's alleged members working on their systems in a room which looks similar to offices of tech start-ups.

Interestingly, security firm Naked Security can elaborate the tale how these people were recognized as part of the Koobface gang. A detailed investigation was conducted by SophosLabs independent researcher Dirk Kollberg, and Jan Drömer between early October 2009 and February 2010.

On the other hand, Kaspersky Labs, the security software company, has estimated that the network included 400,000-800,000 PCs globally at its peak in 2010. Usually, victims are not aware that their systems are being used up such gangs.

The Koobface gang's independence highlighted how difficult it is to catch international cybercriminals, even if their identities are recognized. Such gangs prefer to work in nations where they are not ill-treated by local law, and which have awful collaboration with the US and European law enforcement authorities.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has, in fact, refused to comment on the Koobface gang, and police is also silent on the case while the inquiry is on. Also, the Russian Embassy in Washington claim that it does not have any information regarding this group. Besides, the American law enforcement officials never speak to the Embassy on this matter.

Experts say that the gang could have developed itself via identity fraud as it has had access to millions of PCs and social network profiles. However, there is no evidence to prove that either.

Related article: Koobface Worm Still Active on Facebook Through Hacked Accounts

» SPAMfighter News - 1/24/2012