Almost two million computers around the world, including a small number in Ireland, were recently taken over by malicious hackers, it was revealed today.
US software security firm Finjan announced this morning that it had discovered a network of 1.9 million computers which had been infected with malicious software, or malware and was being tracked to a gang of cybercriminals based in the Ukraine.
As the malware was remotely controlled by the gang, they were able to read e-mails, copy files, record keystrokes, send spam and make screenshots. Such networks can also be used to mount a “denial of service” attack, where a significant number of PCs are set-up to try to contact an individual firm or country’s computer systems at the same time, leading the system to crash.
Finjan said the criminal network of remotely controlled computers, known as a botnet, was the largest ever discovered. It is known to have started operating in February and affected 77 government departments around the world.
The computers were compromised by people visiting infected websites. While no Government departments in Ireland were affected by the malware, around 17 domains were, Finjan said. In addition, 1,611 Irish bots were discovered.
The server which controlled the botnet has now been shut down and law enforcement agencies around the world have been supplied with information about the server.
“The sophistication of the malware and the staggering amount of infected computers proves that cybergangs are raising the bar,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technical officer of Finjan.
Almost half of the infected machines were in the US. Six percent of the botnet were from the UK, while Canada, Germany and France were among a number of countries which were affected by the botnet.
The malware was designed to work in the Windows XP operating system and took advantage of security vulnerabilities in a range of browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari.
