ESET found Botnet Operating in Georgia
ESET has announced discovering a dangerous Botnet (a network of compromised computers) managed through a governmental website in Georgia. ESET researchers assume that Win32/Georbot was created by a group of cyber criminals trying to find sensitive information in order to sell it to other organizations across the globe.
Earlier this year researchers at ESET discovered a botnet named Win32/Georbot. It uses a Georgian governmental website to update its command and control information. Amongst other activities, the Botnet aims to steal documents and certificates. Another unusual characteristic of this malicious program is that it looks for RDP (Remote Desktop Configuration Files) and thereby enables attackers stealing these files to upload them to remote machines without exploiting any vulnerability. Bitnet is also capable of creating audio and video recordings and browses the local network for information.
According to ESET, of all the infected by Win32/Georbot hosts, 70% were located in Georgia followed by far lower volumes in the United States (5,07%), Germany (3,88%) and Russia (3,58%). Pierre-Marc Bureau, Security Intelligence Program Manager, ESET said, "This does not automatically mean that the Georgian government is involved. Quite often people are not aware their systems are compromised. It should be also noted that the Data Exchange Agency of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia and its national CERT were fully aware of the situation as early as 2011 and, in parallel to their own - still ongoing - monitoring, have worked together with ESET on this matter."
Righard Zwienenberg, Senior Research Fellow, ESET said, "Cybercrime is getting more professional and more targeted with larger players entering the field as well. Win32/Stuxnet and Win32/Duqu are examples of high tech cybercrime and served a specific purpose, but even Win32/Georbot, while less sophisticated, still has unique (new) features and methods to get to the core of what its creators are after."
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