Operation Tovar led by the FBI and in conjunction with international crime fighting agencies including the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA) have combined to take down the command servers that direct and control the Botnets responsible for Gameover Zeus and CryptoLocker.
The NCA in true Flash Gordon fashion have announced they have two weeks to save the earth or rather to free thousands of enslaved PCs from Botnets that have temporarily been decommissioned by the forces of law and order.
International Law enforcement agencies are co-operating in a major operation.
Federal agents are leading an operation to enable Homeland Security cyber-squads to identify the infected computers, the Justice Department said. Once the computers are identified through their Internet addresses, private computer security companies will help victims remove the malware. (Well that will be us then).
Over the next couple of weeks the authorities will be notifying the ISPs of victims on their networks and they in turn should contact their customers.
Gameover Zeus & CryptoLocker now appear to be intrinsically linked in that if Gameover Zeus fails to steal the banking credentials that are its specific target it will install a copy of CryptoLocker.
CryptoLocker, which first surfaced in Great Britain in September 2013, uses malware to encrypt computer files on infected computers. Once the computer is locked, the malware posts a ransom note on the screen demanding payments of about $700 in untraceable credit cards or Bit coin to unlock the files.
If the victim fails to pay the ransom, the computer remains locked, and files are unrecoverable.
It is estimated that CryptoLocker has infected more than 234,000 computers worldwide, according to the US Justice Department.
You might be wondering where the two week deadline comes from, that happens to be how long it will take the Cybercriminals to restore control over their Botnets by re-instating the servers elsewhere.
Tamite are an IT support company based in Haywards Heath West Sussex
As a specialis in IT Security we have published some guidelines on what to do to avoid being infected or to assist if you suspect you may have been infected or contact us for assistance.
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