Botnet attacks military systems

**Glaswegian** · 05-02-2008, 11:47 AM

Security researchers have discovered a complex spamming scheme that hijacks users' PCs in order to attempt to send junk mail via university and military systems.

Researchers at Romania-based BitDefender said the scheme, based on a backdoor called Edunet, was one of the most complicated and mysterious they've come across.

"It's not every day that you stumble on the workings of an honest-to-God hacking ring, let alone one that has a predilection for using military and university-run mail servers as spam relays,” said Sorin Dudea, BitDefender's head of anti-virus research, in a statement.

The scam starts with junk emails that offer links to videos. When a user clicks on the link he is prompted to download a "media player" - something that should in itself ring alarm bells, since most videos currently use players embedded in a web page or in the operating system itself.

http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...S&NewsID=12148

05-02-2008, 11:47 AM	#1 (permalink)
Glaswegian Moderator/ Rangemaster TSF Academy; Analyst, Security Team; Oor Wullie; TSF Surgeon and Resident Comic Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Glasgow Posts: 20,725 OS: Win XP Pro SP3 My System Blog Entries: 9	Botnet attacks military systems Security researchers have discovered a complex spamming scheme that hijacks users' PCs in order to attempt to send junk mail via university and military systems. Researchers at Romania-based BitDefender said the scheme, based on a backdoor called Edunet, was one of the most complicated and mysterious they've come across. "It's not every day that you stumble on the workings of an honest-to-God hacking ring, let alone one that has a predilection for using military and university-run mail servers as spam relays,” said Sorin Dudea, BitDefender's head of anti-virus research, in a statement. The scam starts with junk emails that offer links to videos. When a user clicks on the link he is prompted to download a "media player" - something that should in itself ring alarm bells, since most videos currently use players embedded in a web page or in the operating system itself. http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...S&NewsID=12148 __________________ Iain - Defender of the Haggis and all things Scottish. I don't help by PM - post in the Forums. Ad-Aware::SpywareBlaster::SpyBot::SpywareGuard::SnoopFree::AVG Free::HOSTS File::HijackThis::Donate::5 Steps For Infected PCs