Gameover Zeus

kwikbreaks

archieboy wrote: »

It detected one object which was, Rogue.FakeAV. Is this serious?

I've no idea but I know a great site that will help you find out - https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Rogue.FakeAV

Ant555

The bit I don't get is the '2 week window' - or indeed ANY window you care to mention.

If I read it correctly then the botnet has been disrupted, but not eliminated, meaning that its not spreading as much at the moment.

So, is the warning really that you have a window of opportunity to install an up to date AV before normal botnet service is resumed (which it inevitably will)

To all those people that claim it is scaremongering - I say that there are many, many people out there that have no idea what a scam is and are extremely likely to click on a dodgy link.
Education and awareness is a good thing - its not scaremongering.

Maybe we should bring back public information films but instead of 'learn to swim' or 'how to cross the road' it should be modernised.

"Charlie says never, ever click on a link in an email saying you are due a refund on your tax"

molerat

RumRat wrote: »

Well if it was XP specific you may have been right, however, it wasn't.

But "make sure your operating system is up to date" is a key phrase being used in the media, how many XP users will be frightened into buying a new computer / OS by this ? Is this threat really any more dangerous than anything else that has been out there previously ?

S0litaire

Ant555 wrote: »

The bit I don't get is the '2 week window' - or indeed ANY window you care to mention...
...
...

The 2 week window comes from the legal actions the US and the UK have undertaken against organisations which are hosting the botnet's "C&C" (command and control) servers as well as any internet address the botnet was trying to contact to send - receive data.

In 2 week some of those legal measures will either run out or be by-passed.

It might be possible for the hackers have set the bots to "self activate" if not signal is received in a certain number of days or to check public sites or IRC channels for a new C&C address.

Either way people have a clear 12 days to make sure their system is clean and fully backed up!

kwikbreaks

Ant555 wrote: »

If I read it correctly then the botnet has been disrupted, but not eliminated, meaning that its not spreading as much at the moment.

Well that's in essence what the BBC say on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27668260

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) said people probably had "two weeks" before the criminals would get the botnet functioning again, and posted advice on how to best protect computers.

I can't see that this is something dreamed up by MS to get people to upgrade XP machines. It is without doubt being over hyped though.

Incidentally the page with the advice is at...

http://www.getsafeonline.org/nca/

The site is still very slow so it's getting a real hammering based on this story.

RumRat

molerat wrote: »

But "make sure your operating system is up to date" is a key phrase being used in the media, how many XP users will be frightened into buying a new computer / OS by this ? Is this threat really any more dangerous than anything else that has been out there previously ?

No, the threat is no more dangerous than anything else.
As for the OS, it just means your OS, whatever that may be. You may see conspiracy theories wherever you go, but, they are seldom right.
MS has said it's not going to support XP. They gave plenty of notice. If someone is hanging onto it for whatever personal reasons then I doubt that this will frighten them more than the thought of buying something new does...;)

DCodd

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Well that's in essence what the BBC say on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27668260


I can't see that this is something dreamed up by MS to get people to upgrade XP machines. It is without doubt being over hyped though.

I don't think that anyone is suggesting that MS are behind the Zeus Family of Trojans but the multi-national crackdown is good timing for MS. Could it be that MS "warned" the US authorities that with the removal of support of XP very many PC's could be vunerable worldwide and the thing just escalated?

kwikbreaks

DCodd wrote: »

Could it be that MS "warned" the US authorities that with the removal of support of XP very many PC's could be vunerable worldwide and the thing just escalated?

Perhaps they met on that grassy knoll in Dallas?

DCodd

RumRat wrote: »

No, the threat is no more dangerous than anything else.
As for the OS, it just means your OS, whatever that may be. You may see conspiracy theories wherever you go, but, they are seldom right.
MS has said it's not going to support XP. They gave plenty of notice. If someone is hanging onto it for whatever personal reasons then I doubt that this will frighten them more than the thought of buying something new does...;)

17% of all PC 's in the UK are still running xp, hundreds of Millions worldwide. It could be that many a pc that is running xp can't run Win 7 or above? According to the MS checker, my laptop can't run Win 7 or 8.

DCodd

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Perhaps they met on that grassy knoll in Dallas?

Or perhaps the authorities, realising that hundreds of millions of PC's could be vunerable or would become vunerable, decided to take some action???