Zbot Botnet Sends Spam and Trojan Zeus

According to the Internet security specialists, Zbot (network of bots) holds 3.6 Million US computers or 1% of the country's total computers, as per Damballa statistics. It is disseminating the dangerous Trojan, Zeus, as reported by Dark Reading on October 19, 2009.

The foremost big size assault by Zeus was against Outlook. It was a corporate attack, indicating Zbot's latest strategy.

Zeus that captures Internet users' credentials of finance today accounts for 44% of the total finance related malware infections. The Trojan spreads rapidly, infecting computers around the world, and builds a huge botnet of compromised PCs called zombies to push malevolent spam attacks.

Additionally, new reports about the Zbot's activity suggest that the botnet continuously changes its threats. Voluminous spam mails embedded with the Trojan are reportedly overwhelming users' inboxes between San Francisco and London.

Security specialists said - Zeus had been victimizing small companies through the infiltration of their networks. These attacks involved the malware seizing passwords of the companies' bank accounts that the online fraudsters subsequently used to withdraw money.

Trend Micro, the web security firm, warned via a blog posting that a new version of the Zeus was proliferating through junk e-mails. These junk e-mails impersonate e-mail addresses that made the junk appear as being sent from the recipients' own organizations.

Historically, Zeus has been known as a very difficult malware when it comes to detection by certain antivirus programs. Trusteer reports the rate of chances for modern antivirus applications to detect Zeus is just 23%. Moreover, the Trojan is also extremely difficult to remove due to its high potential for concealing itself behind the operating software effectively.

In the end, the specialists remarked that the recent assaults were not the making of the Zbot network alone, but it was also the Avalanche (a fast-flux botnet that was hosting the Zbot or Zeus Trojan). Further the latest surge in Zbot's phishing assaults was only the beginning. More such assaults from the botnet were expected in the forthcoming periods, the specialists added.

Related article: ZBot Trojan Proliferating Inside Facebook: Trend Micro

» SPAMfighter News - 11/2/2009