The ZeroAccess botnet is back in business

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2877923/the-zeroaccess-botnet-is-back-in-business.html

By Lucian Constantin
IDG News Service
Jan 30, 2015

A peer-to-peer botnet called ZeroAccess came out of a six-month 
hibernation this month after having survived two takedown attempts by law 
enforcement and security researchers.

At its peak in 2013, ZeroAccess, also known as Sirefef, consisted of more 
than 1.9 million infected computers that were primarily used for click 
fraud and Bitcoin mining.

That was until security researchers from Symantec found a flaw in the 
botnet's resilient peer-to-peer architecture. This architecture allowed 
the bots to exchange files, instructions and information with each other 
without the need for central command-and-control servers, which are the 
Achilles' heel of most botnets.

By exploiting the flaw, Symantec managed to detach over half a million 
computers from ZeroAccess in July 2013 and launched an effort to clean 
them up in cooperation with ISPs and CERTs.

[...]



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