‘Storm’ Gang in Russia, Intelligence Prevents Taking Action

The law enforcement agencies of Russia and America have eventually identified the cyber criminals responsible for creating and distributing the Storm worm, a piece of malware that has inflicted the Internet in the nastier manner ever.

As Russian authorities make their reach through various diplomatic, government and law enforcement channels, it hasn't been released what number of people is exactly involved and what their identities are.

With the Storm written so well, it appears pretty tough to eradicate it. The worm, which multiplies every half an hour, makes it hard for anti-virus solutions to trap it. Also, like many other worms, there aren't any central controls and command centers to take it out.

Principal Research Scientist, Dmitri Alperovitch, at Secure Computing's TrustedSource Labs, said that the gang who has created Storm has its base in St. Petersburg, the place that seemingly attracts computer criminals like a magnet. InternetNews reported this on January 30, 2008. The city also has other gangs like makers of the MPack malware kit.

Also, St. Petersburg has been home for the Russian Business Network, an ISP that illegally hosted various kinds of child pornography and malware.

According to news from The Register published on January 31, 2008, Alperovitch told The Washington Post that Vladimir Putin, President of Russia and the political influence of the FSB (Federal Security Service), was creating obstacles to prosecution efforts. This suggests that Russian intelligence department could be protecting cyber criminals in the city.

However, complications would increase even more if the law enforcement bodies of the US demands extradition.

The greatest sufferers from the Storm worm are American companies. But since the worm has infected and affected Internet users in almost every country, many people might be waiting for those proliferating it to be fully demolished.

While some security professionals think the Storm users are situated in Russia, they don't know their exact location, even less their individualities. Senior Technology Consultant, David Emm, at Kaspersky Lab, UK, said that packaging techniques and coding similarities accompanying the worm indicate the writers of this malware and Russian hackers of local websites are the same people, according to The Register.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 2/8/2008