Zeus Botnet Commits Suicide

Over 100,000 Windows machines infected by the Zeus Trojan horse got a rude awakening in April when a kill switch was activated, sending all of the infected machines into BSOD-hell. Experts have no idea why the botnet would be instructed to self-destruct like that, though they have no shortage of theories.

"Maybe the botnet was hijacked by another crime group," he offered in an online chat with Security Fix. Then again, maybe the individuals in control over that ill-fated botnet simply didn't understand what they were doing. "Many cyber criminals...using the Zeus crimeware kit aren't very skilled," Hüssy said.

Comments