Google suing alleged Russian hackers
Google is suing alleged hackers believed to be based in Russia and part of a cybercrime gang. Glupteba is a botnet that has infected more than a million computers. The company says the botnet targets Windows machines and protects itself using blockchain technology.
”A botnet is a network of devices connected to the internet that have been infected with a type of malware that places them under the control of bad actors. They can then use the infected devices for malicious purposes, such as to steal your sensitive information or commit fraud through your home network”, the company said in a blog post.
”After a thorough investigation, we determined that the Glupteba botnet currently involves approximately one million compromised Windows devices worldwide, and at times, grows at a rate of thousands of new devices per day. Glupteba is notorious for stealing users’ credentials and data, mining cryptocurrencies on infected hosts, and setting up proxies to funnel other people’s internet traffic through infected machines and routers.”
Google coordinated with industry partners to take technical action and disrupted key command and control infrastructure so those operating Glupteba should no longer have control of their botnet — for now.
The company is also suing the operators of the botnet, who Google believes are based in Russia.
”Unfortunately, Glupteba’s use of blockchain technology as a resiliency mechanism is notable here and is becoming a more common practice among cyber crime organizations. The decentralized nature of blockchain allows the botnet to recover more quickly from disruptions, making them that much harder to shutdown. We are working closely with industry and government as we combat this type of behaviour, so that even if Glupteba returns, the internet will be better protected against it.”
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