Source: Omar El Akkad: Thursday’s Globe and Mail
Three charged with running global Web ring that infected more than 15 million computers, including federal and banking systems
A Canadian company has helped dismantle a massive computer-infiltration ring that infected more than 15 million computers around the world – including systems within Canadian banks and the federal government.
Spanish police have arrested three people charged with running a botnet – a program that infects and partly takes over victims’ computers – that spanned some 190 countries. Not only is the botnet (named Mariposa, Spanish for butterfly) one of the largest of its kind, the software’s operators appeared to target government and corporate computers, stealing huge amounts of sensitive data.
“Mariposa really stood out because it was growing at such a rate,” said Chris Davis, founder and CEO of Defence Intelligence, an Ottawa-based information security firm that helped track and ultimately disable Mariposa. “If you run down the list of Fortune 1,000 companies, you’re talking about a 65-per-cent infection rate.”