Massive Chinese cyber hack revealed

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Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 9:12 pm

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2239400/massive-chinese-cyber-hack

Quote:

According to a report in The Independent, the researchers uncovered a network involving 1,295 compromised computers from the ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, and others, and embassies including India, South Korea, Indonesia, Germany and Pakistan

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Yikes.

On a related note, just wait until THIS sucker fires up.

It's a good reminder for everyone to check their OS patches, firewall and AV updates.

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 10:03 pm

Conflicker is already in the UK Houses of Parliament IT system, as it appears that they diidn't follow the most basic security - like updating anti-virus. Shocked

UK government systems are actually some of the most secure in the world - as they don't work. Government computer contracts appear to miss out a clause like 'they should also work'.

Still - we don't have any secrets that haven't already been left on a train.

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:21 pm

I hear Conficker is supposed to attack at midnight on April 1st (Which tomorrow where I'm at. Shocked

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:50 pm

^^^ This is an email I just received from an IT friend that does forensic work for law enforcement agencies. CBS (60 minutes) also had a segment on it Sunday, and found out they were infected.

I clicked on the 2 links and could see them. I have a feeling it won't happen tomorrow because they know people are aware of it and taking precautions. I think it'll just happen out of the blue when no one is expecting it. But who knows Confused

Quote:

Read this today, tomorrow will be too late
Good Day All

a quick way to see if you will be affected is go to your internet browser BEFORE the 1st and try to view the following 2 websites. If you do not see / get them you are infected... without a doubt, as the bot does not allow you access to websites that can detect it and fix the problem!!!!

http://www.symantec.com
http://www.f-secure.com

Otherwise make sure your anti-virus, firewall and Microsoft are all up to date and you should be safe

For those that cannot access the two websites above and live in Crossville I recommend you take your confuser (computer) box only to APEX Computers in downtown Crossville across from courthouse and have them clean your system...well worth it! These guys are good.

and

Quote:

Please take a few moments to read the attached article from Kim Komando and react accordingly while you still have time. I just received this this morning or I would have sent it earlier. You've probably heard about this virus that is scheduled to hit on April 1st on the news or through various internet "pass-arounds". This article tells you how to protect yourself. If you're not familiar with Kim Komando, I believe her to be a trustworthy source.

Virus Protection.pdf - Adobe Acrobat Standard.pdf (66KB)

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:52 pm

^^ Sorry about the double post. Didn't mean to include the last paragraph, obviously. mea culpa Sad

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:49 pm

Well it's the first here in Europe, anyone's computer blown up yet?

Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 2:26 am

^^^ The PSU in my main PC blew a fuse at 0730 hrs.

The Shuttle launch is postponed until further notice Sad

Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 4:28 am

Probably not related but I haven't been able to get into google mail services like gmail, sify, mail.mn for about 5 hours now.

Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 4:35 am

well, it's april 1st here, has been for 15 hrs now, i can still access everything Smile

Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 5:56 am

Looks like it was just a media frenzy:

Conficker April 1 Update Won't Result In Attack, Experts Say

Quote:

The Conficker worm is primed and ready for its latest update April 1, but security experts say that a large-scale cyberattack is not likely.

Come April 1, the latest version of Conficker, the malicious computer worm that has infected millions of computers in the creation of a global botnet, is set to launch a new update mechanism that will allow it to communicate unimpeded with its command and control centers for new instructions. Meanwhile, the newest evolution of the worm, known as the Conficker C variant, will come with a changed domain generation algorithm that will open up access to 50,000 newly generated domains.

However, despite the latest evolution of the Conficker worm, security experts don't anticipate a major Internet meltdown on Wednesday, April 1.

The reason? Creators of the Conficker worm probably don't want to launch an attack under the watchful gaze of the public, experts say. Instead, it is very likely that Conficker C will conduct its updates in peace on Wednesday and continue to silently incorporate computers into its massive spam-spewing botnet.

"The analysis has shown that Conficker authors have toned down the number of update requests, which they have done so they can fly under the radar. They want to run a botnet, as big as possible and as healthy as possible," said Wolfgang Kandeck, CTO of security company Qualys. "It's not in their interest to be visible. It's not in their interest to annoy you."

Instead, if there were to be a massive denial-of-service attack, it will likely come unexpectedly, after the publicity has died down, Kandeck said.

Meanwhile, subsequent attacks might be a little bit more difficult now than before, experts say. Over the weekend, security researchers finalized the development of a Conficker scanning tool that has the ability to monitor and remediate the Conficker worm on infected machines.

One of Conficker's telltale calling cards is its ability to repair its own vulnerability once it has infected a PC -- possibly to keep competing worms and malware from occupying the same space. However, the breakthrough tool, developed as part of the German Honeynet Project, relies on a sophisticated fingerprint-scanning technique that is able to distinguish between a regularMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT)-issued patch, which closes the hole completely, and a Conficker-created patch, which leaves a small opening for itself.

Click

Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 1:29 pm

i am offering up my services to remove the conficker hoax virus from ur computer for a low, low price of only $19.95 - and for a limited time i will also delete all the kiddie pr0n from ur pc too, as well as ur windows directory, that windows "operating system" virus is pretty nasty too - it first appeared as win95, then win98, again as win2k, winME and then xp and vista and now hides itself as win7.....if anyone needs help removing the conficker hoax then please just do us all a favor and unplug ur computer and throw it out of the window now, it's the only way to be safe...

seriously, think about it - if they "knew" it was gonna go off on april 1st why don't they know what it's gonna do? it is possible to look at the code and figure out what it's gonna do and where the info is gonna be sent....this is obviously a hoax and the 13 yr-old script kiddie pranksters are laughing their arses off....

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