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Comments: 95 +- IT: Two Arrested For Zbot Trojan on Wednesday November 18, @10:23PM
Posted
by
samzenpus
on Wednesday November 18, @10:23PM
from the sorry-about-that dept.
from the sorry-about-that dept.
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it
An anonymous reader writes "Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit have made Europe's first arrests in the battle against the ZeuS or Zbot Trojan which threatened to compromise thousands of computers. Officers arrested a man and woman, both aged 20 years, in Manchester for offenses under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act and the 2006 Fraud Act. Both suspects were interviewed by PCeU detectives and have been bailed for further in-depth inquiries to be completed. The arrests in connection with the malware represent some of the first in the world, and the first in Europe to combat the distribution and control of ZeuS."
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Submission: Two Arrested for Zbot Trojan by Anonymous Coward
leverage, n.:
Even if someone doesn't care what the world thinks
about them, they always hope their mother doesn't find out.
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2 Down... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:2 Down... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:2 Down... (Score:5, Funny)
But it is good to see more women programmers coming into the field.
The downside is Trojan writers now can breed.
Parent
Re:2 Down... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Odd, I was under the impression they used the trojans to stop from accidentally breeding.
The Trojan company was started in a desperate attempt by computer makers to keep down the numbers of trojan writers. Sadly having never seen a female trojan writer most male trojan writers couldn't figure out what to do with the company's product. A few creative trojan writers did finally figure out a use, those can be spotted by the long balloons hanging from their computer desks.
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I am named after Trojans' home city. Yeah I guess my mom had little imagination. ;-) I RTFA but I don't know where these arrests happened. UK?
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Manchester, to be precise. I'd have guessed Liverpool, but I don't suppose they have any computers there.
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All been stolen by those thieving bastards from [insert housing estate of choice]?
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Oh, so this is Slashdot. Very well, carry on...
Re:2 Down... (Score:5, Insightful)
I would have imagined that if these two were smart then they would have completely covered/obfuscated their tracks every step of the way. From propagating the first copy of the trojan to making sure any profits/information was sent through an elaborate network of communication-encrypted proxies before arriving on a remote server from which they could connect to using a similar but different network of communication-encrypted proxies and download/view the information.
I'd really love to know if they were just stupid, or if someone else was just way smarter. For the stories sake, I hope its the latter.
Parent
Re:2 Down... (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
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The vast, vast majority of criminals are caught either because of stupidity on their part or someone squealing.
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The vast, vast majority of criminals are caught either because of stupidity on their part or someone squealing.
A cop friend of mine used to say that "All criminals are stupid." Until I replied with, "No. Just the ones you meet."
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Not a very important cop then? Most politicians like to be seen glad handing the Chief Constable.
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Probably thousands or millions to go.
Sorry, I just can't get excited about 2 people caught.
Especially when these two are the first to be arrested for this kind of crime in the whole of Europe.
Great news (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, wait...
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indoors, but without an internet connection.
However, all they have to do is claim they're addicted to the internet, and that withholding it is against their human rights, and they'll be provided with 24/7 unlimited download with large capacity bandwidth for free.
So its a good job we're imprisoning these people to punish them.
Oh, wait....
i hope there's a follow up story (Score:4, Interesting)
it would be interesting to find out if they are merely patsies for a larger effort, or are genuinely isolated and inspired script kiddies
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Or whether they are convicted or let off. We always hear about arrests but rarely convictions.
Arrested, then bailed (Score:1)
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I'd like to see them do that. There's no earthly way they'd have been arrested without the police having first made sure they had seized every computer those people had even been suspected of breathing on.
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Sure, because police can go to any cybercafe or university and take all their computers anytime they want, right?
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OK, agreed. But that's not what the GP said.
Re:Not mentioned in the article... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Not mentioned in the article... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Windows only / not windows only (Score:2, Insightful)
I try to be sympathetic to windows users, and even try to help on occasion
but I am slowly losing any semblance of a positive attitude.
The "who cares about windows users" keeps getting stronger.
I can't protect everybody from themselves.
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but.... you're batman!
Re:Windows only / not windows only (Score:4, Funny)
The "who cares about windows users" keeps getting stronger.
What else do the evil voices tell you to do?
Parent
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Actually, not all Windows users are total mouth breathing idiots. How many people here are Windows admins FFS? I've been using it since 3.1 and have never had a virus etc. own one of my machines. Linux in all it's incarnations is fun to use, but it doesn't cover everything I need a computer for...yet.
Who the fuck modded this +4 Insightful? Somebody with an account copy and paste this for this dweeb! This is why I don't bother to get an account!
Re: (Score:2)
I get infected with something terrible at every lanparty >= 100 geeks. I take good care of my gaming machine, up-to-date patches/drivers/firmware and AV.
The worst one ever was the sasser worm. I was at a lanparty of 450 folks and the sasser got loose.. this was early to mid 2004. Someone there worked with an AV and got a removal tool for us within two hours.
I typically backup everything to my linux box before a party. Then post party i scan all the drives before putting the machine back on the networ
Oh please (Score:3, Insightful)
Idiots are everywhere. You think people won't write malware or trojans if macos or linux suddenly jumped to a majority market share? People write the shit for windows because its what everyone uses. Why would I bother with 1.2% of the linux users when theres 92% of windows users available? Nothing is idiot proof, not even linux.
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"You try to create an idiot proof system, mother nature just creates a 'better' idiot." :)
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Better class OS will have better class Trojans written for it
And with this kind of competition, quality improves, and everyone benefits! Win-win!
Oh, wait...
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
People tend to forget the good old days. They also forget that those days aren't that different now, what is different is the perception and the interest.
Re:Oh please (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, linux malware will be blue blooded fine cuban cigars smoking fine scotch drinking gentleman, much unlike windows malware which drinks cheap beer, smoke lucky strikes, lives in trailer park and has five kids with four men.
Parent
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What the hell is wrong with lucky strikes! Its toasted!
Re: (Score:2)
I'm obliged to state that smoking is bad for you and that you shouldn't do it, and it's illegal for Under 18's to purchase tobacco here, but if I had to smoke, it'd be Luckies. Because they're really good.
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My Mac fanboy brother in law told me he only needs WEP on his access point because he has a Mac and they are safer. I suggested he might want to increase his wireless security if he is going to keep running his web business behind it. Unconvinced he said he would look into it. You can lead a horse to water...
O... what's his address? I have some... business for him... or for his internet connection at least...
Re:Windows only / not windows only (Score:5, Insightful)
The only thing I know for certain is that I have more control over a Linux machine and as such have found them easier to diagnose and fix. Oh, and tonnes easier to reliably lock down.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
You should have read that summary better. The feature has been around but is only just now enabled on a default install. Not only that but only signed software can be installed (no removal). This is aimed at desktop installs. So they can install apache, sure.. but it will just sit there.. not running.
This way if a desktop user needs something installed they can get it from the official repo without calling desktop-support.
Don't like it? Turn off the feature! Don't deploy a default install of anything.
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If your bank has any Windows PCs or servers, you probably should care.
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Don't worry. The world will get along just fine without your help.
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If only the crappy virus infested Windows junk would quit blasting my mail server with projectile vomit.
It's almost enough that I wish someone would just once and for all inject a secure wipe all your HDs and flash your BIOS with junk command into the botnets and be done with it.
Given that that *IS* a possibility and the number of businesses dependent on their virus ridden junk, I would think killing the botnets would be considered top priority for the cyber-security do-nothings in Washington.
"National policing" (Score:2)
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It's because the UK's e-crime unit is part of the Metropolitan Police. I guess it doesn't make sense for each police authority to have it's own e-crime unit.
PCeU - Police Central e-crime Unit [police.uk]
Re: (Score:2)
That's in addition to Met Officers not being arrested and tried for killing members of the public. Something which has