Internet Security and Programming

Just as thugs and drug dealers jealously guard their street corners with destructive turf wars, online spammers and other shadowy characters have been known to attack one another for control over virtual real estate. This week, security experts spotted a nasty tussle brewing between criminals who operate two of the largest networks of hijacked computers used to blast out spam. This latest cyber crime feud stars the folks behind the massively successful “Storm worm,” and the crooks responsible for unleashing the recent Mpack online attack tool. The Storm worm surfaced earlier this year, initially posing as video clips of a European windstorm that killed dozens of people. Computers infected with it were merged into a botnet whose sole purpose appears to be using them to relay junk e-mail. Storm also plants a “rootkit,” or set of files designed to hide the malicious software from security programs and prevent its [...]

Read more…