back to article Undead Bredolab zombie network lashes out from the grave

The decapitation of command and control servers associated with the infamous Bredolab botnet, and the arrest of a suspect in Armenia, is a fantastic step forward for internet hygiene. But these steps have nevertheless failed to stop all malicious activity associated with the zombie network. An operation led by the Dutch police …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ooooohhh!!!!!

    And just in time for halloween, too....

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    END

    evil never dies

  3. Tom 7

    About that notice

    just the sort of thing everyone advises you to ignore.

  4. yoinkster
    Unhappy

    It's a shame

    that real "you've been pwned" message looks just as convincing as the fake "you've been pwned" messages.

    Perhaps something lower tech would have better results, something like open notepad and leave a message. That's harder to ignore than a webpage that looks as dodgy as the dodgy ones

    1. Pablo

      I thought the same thing

      I don't think it's a bad idea in principle to take control of botnets and do this kind of thing, but that message is far too easily ignored, and looks too similar to fakes people have likely seen before. I don't know if they had full control or what, but if they did, they could have done better. Ideally they would drop a payload that would actually disable the botnet software. Failing that, I think a more forceful warning would do more good. Something like replacing their desktop wallpaper, or as you said, even a notepad document.

      Perhaps they were reluctant to do anything more serious given that they didn't actually have permission to mess with all those people's computers. But under the circumstances, I think it would be justifiable.

  5. shuckie
    FAIL

    Pity...

    ... that the warning message resembles a scareware-type alert.

    "Your computer is infected! Click this link to be taken to our website..."

    How is the average user supposed to be able to tell the difference? What if malware was created to display a warning which resembled the genuine message and direct users to a site where they were encouraged to download scareware to remove the infection?

    Oh well, nice try anyway I suppose.

  6. Random Noise

    You computer is infected

    If I saw a pop up that told me my computer was infected with a link on how to remove it I certainly wouldn't click it.

    It sounds the same as every other fake antivirus pop-up.

    While commendable on the part of the Dutch authorities I can see this not really working.

    On the other had if people follow it & think that this is the standard when they get infected then nex time they do get a fake pop up they will reinfect themselves.

  7. Richard Porter

    Re. You computer is infected

    "If I saw a pop up that told me my computer was infected with a link on how to remove it I certainly wouldn't click it."

    You wouldn't, but the muppets who got their computers pwned would click on anything. If they've done it once they'll do it again.

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