6 ms·
Botnet targets scientists, engineers, and academics
- weightloss703 10y agoi know but little idea
- joe_the_user 10y agoIt seems sad and logical that the botnets of the world will gradually be programmed to loot everything of present or future value. I have some very non-tech friends who keep an old machine they know is horribly infected around just to play games. Lots of average folks don't have the incentive to fight infection and lots of companies equally don't have a strong incentive stop it.
- x1798DE 10y ago> There are also no instances of Jaku targeting North Korean victims. Is this unusual? How many computers are there in North Korea, and would you ever hear about it it'd they were infected with something?
- chillacy 10y agoI think the author was hinting at the culprit: > "There are indicators that suggest that the author(s) of the malware identified are native Korean speakers," Forcepoint researchers said. However I can still entertain the thought that it could be a false lead planted by the malware authors. I won't name any 3 letter agencies.
- Joof 10y agoSouth Korea still seems more likely. I'm sure there are computer experts in the north, but far fewer and they might be better spent elsewhere.
- duskwuff 10y agoThis isn't unusual in the slightest. Access to the global Internet is heavily restricted within North Korea. Most computers only have access to a "walled garden" intranet within the country, so there is no way that users would encounter the malware.
- fernly 10y ago> Researchers found that three quarters of systems infected with Jaku were running an unlicensed version of Microsoft Windows. Which means, systems that are never updated, so, systems that are vulnerable to a broad range of attacks, and would likely be part of one botnet or another in any case.
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoTo understand what part that has in encouraging infection, we'd have to know what fraction of uninfected machines were unlicensed?
- snowwindwaves 10y agoArticle doesn't mention how it targets scientists, engineers, and academics. Maybe it looks for CAD programs installed, matlab, or files that would be generated by those types of programs. Article says 70% of infections are in south korea and japan so it is definitely geo targeting. 6% of infections are in the US. I wonder if those are by accident.
- beardog 10y agoThis will be more interesting when theres more info to read on it.
- kusmi 10y agoThis doesn't surprise me, most of the computers and other equipment in the research facility I work at are directly hooked up with Ethernet. The university manages it's own IP block but doesn't have any oversight over what goes on, no firewall. Most of the security is in the router which connects to the same network students on campus use. I've heard horror stories like the 2nd floor printer which was hijacked and turned into a porn server, researchers locked out of compromised equipment (worth millions). I spent months hardening my system and setting up my own local network after my first Linux box was rooted days after hooking it up (probably hours).