Burgeoning botnets!

In part 2, we examine more botnet and malware case histories, analyze data breach causal factors and related statistics, and discuss ways to avoid becoming a victim of these nefarious schemes. 

On June 2, 2014, the FBI, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), reported that a multinational effort successfully led to the disruption of another botnet. (See GameOver Zeus Botnet Disrupted.) The DOJ said that law enforcement agencies from Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the Ukraine, the U.K. and other countries participated in the disruption operation.

This joint initiative was called GameOver Zeus — named for the malware of the same name — a very complex type of malware developed by cybercriminals to steal banking credentials and other personally identifiable information (PII) from infected computers. Once infected with the GameOver Zeus malware, the computers become part of a global network — a system of botnets — cybercriminals use to spread the malware through spam email and phishing messages.

According to the FBI article, cybercriminals' use of the GameOver Zeus malware has resulted in estimated losses of more than $100 million from individuals and businesses throughout the world.