Article

2008-11-13 -Lurid Crime Tales-

Major Source of Online Scams and Spams Knocked Offline

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Posted by Steve White 2008-11-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 This could explain why we are seeing rather amateurish spamming activity; by the next generation of trainees...

Posted by badanov 2008-11-13 00:16|| http://www.freefirezone.org]">[http://www.freefirezone.org] 2008-11-13 00:16|| Front Page Top

#2 One down, two to go.

Posted by newc">newc 2008-11-13 00:33|| 2008-11-13 00:33|| Front Page Top

#3 Some interesting points raised on this subject in a different forum:

At the very least, it seems that this makes any prosecution more difficult. While it appears that folks did a great job of following the network connections--to nail the individuals involved you need to follow the money. Even worse, what if the FBI *was* investigating them already, and now their target has been shut down? Unless there was behind-the-scenes cooperation that hasn't been reported, someone (on either the technical or law enforcement side) was not behaving responsibly. This should have been a coordinated shutdown--simultaneously involving closing network connections and arresting individuals.

Secondly, aren't we still playing whack-a-mole here? The network controlled over a million compromised PCs. Those machines are still compromised. Since the individuals who controlled them are evidently still at large, I think it's safe to assume that the keys to those machines are still out there. If that's the case, then those machines will be up and spamming again inside of a week. The only thing that might delay that would be if the primary payment processors really were taken offline as well. I don't want to open the "counter-virus" can of worms. But how hard would it have been to identify the control sequences for those PCs and change them to random sequences? Shutting down a central control center is good news, but taking 1.5 million PCs permanently (at least until next infection) out of a botnet would be really impressive.

Maybe more information will prove me wrong, but right now this seems more like a lost opportunity than a great success. I was quite surprised to hear that so many operations were centralized in one place. I doubt that opportunity is going to come again.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-11-13 02:22|| 2008-11-13 02:22|| Front Page Top

#4 Didn't someone assassinate a big-time spammer in Moscow a couple of years ago?

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2008-11-13 04:13|| 2008-11-13 04:13|| Front Page Top

#5 Oh, noes! Where will I get my paenis enarglement pills from now on?!

Posted by anonymous5089 2008-11-13 05:27|| 2008-11-13 05:27|| Front Page Top

#6 Looks like Patti won't be asking me out on dates anymore!

Posted by gorb 2008-11-13 06:36|| 2008-11-13 06:36|| Front Page Top

#7 So, you guys started building the gallows yet? I've got some plywood and 2x4s in the garage if you need them. And a nail gun. Come to think of it, let's dispense with the hanging and just use the nail gun on them; cheaper that way.

Posted by Mike 2008-11-13 11:40|| 2008-11-13 11:40|| Front Page Top

#8 Plenty more potential spammers where these came from.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-11-13 15:08|| 2008-11-13 15:08|| Front Page Top

#9 They didn't catch any spammers, just got the network shut off to one of their nests. They will build a new nest and be back online in a week or two.

Posted by Phinetle Squank7785 2008-11-13 18:14|| 2008-11-13 18:14|| Front Page Top

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