back to article Botnet PC armies gulp down 16 MILLION logins from around the web: Find out if you're a victim

Officials in Germany have warned that large networks of hijacked, hacker-controlled PCs – aka botnets – have harvested 16 million email address and password combinations for websites and other online services. The (German Office of Information Security) BSI said cops and security researchers have been closely following armies …

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  1. frank ly

    Just wondering

    "Should a user's address be found in the collection, they'll be told to scan their systems for malware, ...."

    Will you get a follow up e-mail from a German government approved anti-malware vendor? My question is cynical because I'm a UK citizen and know how slimy my government is. Is the German government clean and wholesome?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just wondering

      Yup, the same government that was caught deploying malware a couple of years ago

      http://ccc.de/en/updates/2011/staatstrojaner

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just wondering

      > My question is cynical because I'm a UK citizen and know how slimy my government is. Is the German government clean and wholesome?

      Being a German citizen and a UK resident my impression is that the German conservatives under Angela are a good bit more on the left than those over here (and I consider that a good thing) but clean and wholesome is probably taking it a bit far.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: Just wondering

        and I consider that a good thing

        "It's not the right vs. the left, it is the state vs. you."

        Haben Sie etwas gelernt von der letzten Mal!?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Just wondering

          > "It's not the right vs. the left, it is the state vs. you."

          That's a lovely quote but governments are not entirely immune to the will of the people. I'll watch the video when I get time, but would you care to summarise what you would like me to have learnt vom letzten Mal?

          1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

            Re: "governments are not entirely immune to the will of the people"

            The NSA might disagree with that statement.

            And I'm pretty sure the CIA will ROFL.

        2. FntX

          Re: Just wondering

          ...I don't trust them. They don't even care to solve the NSA incident.

          Privacy in Germany? Forget about that!

    3. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Just wondering

      Re: Will you get a follow up e-mail from a German government approved anti-malware vendor?

      The website provides a download link to the Avira PC-Cleaner.

    4. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Just wondering

      As an Englishman living in Germany, I find the German approach to privacy encouraging. Compared to the USA, where big business seems to be protected from the wants and needs of the individual, the German (and in general Europe) the importance of private citizens rights, when dealing with big business is encouraging.

      At first, I found the web site to be a pain, why can't I just search for my email addresses? But if I can do that, so can everybody else, which would break EU and German privacy laws. I am glad that it works this way.

      I have checked a dozen addresses that my family and I use, both privately and for work and I haven't had any feedback so far.

  2. WibbleMe

    this week set up link is broken

  3. tojb
    Thumb Up

    Gov encouraging citizens to use pgp?

    "erhalten Sie eine von uns per PGP signierte E-Mail"

    That's pretty encouraging. Even if UK.gov knew themselves what that means, use of technical terms or ideas would probably fall foul of their inclusivity guidelines.

  4. Shannon Jacobs
    Holmes

    Scope of the damage? Statistics?

    The website is pretty tricky to use, but I wish there was some way to assess the risk. From a statistical perspective, what percentage of email addresses might be included? That should also depend on the domain. For example, if Yahoo Japan has been heavily compromised, it may tell me how hard to sweat...

    As it stands now, this website doesn't seem that helpful. I have quite a number of email addresses... I don't even want to try and count how many websites I've logged into over the years...

  5. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    Überprüfen ist sehr einfach!

    Ich hab es schon gemacht. Alles ist klar. *

    But then I was taught German at school (mandatory subject here in the Netherlands).

    The fact that the German government encourages use of PGP does not surprise me. Sceptics (or realists if you like) might argue this just means they can crack that, but the German government's attitude to privacy appears to be better than some others.

    *= Checking is very easy. I have done it. All is clear.

    1. Schnoerkelman

      Re: Überprüfen ist sehr einfach!

      And for those without a German language background the translation via Chrome is quite good. Alles klar?

      1. Fair Dinkum

        Re: Überprüfen ist sehr einfach!

        Ja. Das ist auch ayne gute Ubersetzung von google.

        1. Sandtitz Silver badge

          Re: Überprüfen ist sehr einfach!

          Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

    2. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Überprüfen ist sehr einfach!

      It was the lead story in the press and on the TV news, here in Germany.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Malware infested machines ..

    Ban all these malware infested hijacked hacker-controlled PC machines

  7. Micha

    Fishy fishy

    The paranoid android in me smells a verification system - checking whether or not the data in the botnet is "live" or not. The system allegedly only emails you for positives. "No News Good News" kinda thing. But what's to say they don't bother sending the email for a hit and instead save it into a shortlist of data.

    Governments resorting to phishing. Tsk tsk.

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