Big Boost in Zombie PCs Seen From Latest Windows Exploit

Iria · Aug 23, 2006, 03:24 AM

Source: TechWeb
_________
The virus exploiting a bug disclosed in Microsoft's latest security bulletin has commandeered nearly 50,000 Windows PCs each day in the last week, a security firm said Tuesday.

The average number of new zombie PCs recorded each day by CipherTrust has jumped since Aug. 14 to 263,000 from 214,000, Dmitri Alperovitch, research scientist for the Alpharetta, Ga., company said. The increase has been blamed on the most recent version of Mocbot, also called Wargbot and Graweg, which exploits the Windows flaw patched Aug. 8 by Microsoft.

The increase itself is not a surprise, given that spikes in the number of PCs commandeered by virus writers to spew spam or malware often go up when new worms or vulnerabilities are disclosed. What is unusual in this case, however, is how the machines are being infected.

Aug 23, 2006, 03:24 AM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Big Boost in Zombie PCs Seen From Latest Windows Exploit Source: TechWeb _________ The virus exploiting a bug disclosed in Microsoft's latest security bulletin has commandeered nearly 50,000 Windows PCs each day in the last week, a security firm said Tuesday. The average number of new zombie PCs recorded each day by CipherTrust has jumped since Aug. 14 to 263,000 from 214,000, Dmitri Alperovitch, research scientist for the Alpharetta, Ga., company said. The increase has been blamed on the most recent version of Mocbot, also called Wargbot and Graweg, which exploits the Windows flaw patched Aug. 8 by Microsoft. The increase itself is not a surprise, given that spikes in the number of PCs commandeered by virus writers to spew spam or malware often go up when new worms or vulnerabilities are disclosed. What is unusual in this case, however, is how the machines are being infected.