 | By Woody Leonhard One of the most pernicious forms of malware ever written, ZeuS has taken a more sinister turn, despite a highly publicized, worldwide series of arrests — and the self-announced retirement of its creator. ZeuS is not just a bit of malicious code; using multilevel marketing and quick-change attack strategies, it’s a malware system and possibly the most pervasive threat on the Net.
|
In some ways, ZeuS uses old-hat, stock-in-trade Trojan behavior; but in other devilish ways it’s unique — and it’s changing.
For sale: the ZeuS rootkit malware kit
It’s best to think of ZeuS as a franchise operation — would-be malware mavens buy a ZeuS franchise. Franchisees receive a rootkit kit (no kidding!), a package of software that makes it click-click-click easy to create a custom infection routine. Many kinds of routines, in fact: some ZeuS infections spread in spam, some take advantage of zero-day holes in Windows, others come along for the ride with infected, downloaded programs.
Rogue anti-malware is a favorite form of attack; it spreads rapidly across company networks, hitches rides on USB drives, or is injected through drive-by attacks on browsers.
Related posts:
