Largest Malware network in the World
July 13, 2009 Computer Safety Tip
The worlds largest-ever malware network has been uncovered, affecting 1.9 million corporate, government and 
consumer computers.
The network was uncovered by Finjan Inc’s Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC), as part of research into command and control servers operated by cybercriminals.
The cybercrime server has been working away since February 2009. It was introduced in the Ukraine and controlled by six people, who established a vast affiliation network across the web to successfully distribute and operate their malware.
They exposed computers in 77 government-owned domains from the US, UK and other countries. The US was the worst-affected country, accounting for 45 percent of infected machines, followed by the UK with six percent and Canada and Germany with four per cent each.
The malware is remotely controlled by the cybercriminals, enabling them to execute almost any command on the end-user computer. Some will even hire out hackers or spammers to use and sell the gathered information.
Finjan has provided US and UK law enforcement agencies with information about the server since the discovery. The affected corporate and government agencies have also been contacted.
The malware was installed on computers when visiting compromised websites serving malicious code. The information founded by MCRC on the command and control server includes the IP addresses of the infected computers as well as the computer’s names inside corporate and government networks that are running the malware.
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