Kaspersky calms botnet fears

Kaspersky Lab has dispelled mounting fears of the Kneber botnet, said to be impervious to any anti-virus software.

This follows reports by NetWitness, a US IT security company, where experts claimed the Kneber botnet had infected almost 75 000 computers.

Media reports spurred fears of this new Kneber virus, which speculated that regular anti-virus protection would be useless against it. Reports mentioned that the networks of 2 500 organisations had been compromised.

The zombie network's name is derived from the pseudonym Hilary Kneber, which was used to register malicious Internet addresses. Kaspersky claims a cyber criminal acting under this name did in fact infect, and control, a very large number of computers using the well-known ZeuS Trojan (ZBot).

Dmitry Tarakanov, malware analyst at Kaspersky Lab, says: “The ZBot Trojan is a tool which steals users' confidential data, including logins and passwords to just about anything: e-mail, social networks, online banking, online auctions, online exchanges, as well as credit card data and security certificates, sending all the data stolen from infected users to the cyber criminal.”

Tarakanov adds that Kaspersky has no data indicating whether the ZBot specifically attacks business and government organisations. “The report states that the vast majority of the computers falling victim to the Kneber botnet were located in the Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Kuwait).

“These countries are known to Kaspersky Lab experts for their high level of network worms. These worms also exploit vulnerabilities in outdated systems where the latest updates haven't been installed.”

Tarakanov points out that the Middle East is not the only region suffering from poor corporate security policies. The US and Mexico are also among the countries worst hit. He advises both business and home users to make sure their computer systems are secure.

“Second-rate protection, a superficial knowledge of computer security, and a casual attitude will be punished by modern cyber threats,” he concludes.