The cybercriminal gang that operated the recently disabled Kelihos botnet has already begun building a new botnet with the help of a Facebook worm, according to security researchers from Seculert. Security experts from Kaspersky Lab, CrowdStrike, Dell SecureWorks and the Honeynet Project, announced that they took control of the 110,000…
Kelihos botnet mark II taken down by security firms
A group of malware experts from security companies Kaspersky Lab, CrowdStrike, Dell SecureWorks and the Honeynet Project, have worked together to disable the second version of the Kelihos botnet, which is significantly bigger than the one shut down by Microsoft and its partners in September 2011. The Kelihos botnet, also…
Security Researchers Take Down ‘Kelihos Botnet’
Security researchers from four different organizations brought down a botnet by turning a supposed strength of the criminals’ spamming network into a fatal weakness. Experts from CrowdStrike, Dell SecureWorks, the Honeynet Project and Kaspersky Lab crippled the second-coming of the Kelihos botnet on March 21 by “sinkholing” about 118,000 bot-infected…
Kelihos botnet dead but malware evolved, say Microsoft and Kaspersky
Microsoft insist the Kelihos botnet is dead despite reports last week suggesting otherwise; but the company acknowledged that a new botnet is being assembled using a variant of the original malware. The reappearance of a Kelihos-like army of hijacked computers shows just how difficult it is to eradicate a botnet,…
Kelihos botnet cranks back up after Microsoft attack
A botnet that was crippled by Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab last September is spamming once again and experts have no recourse to stop it. The Kelihos botnet only infected 45,000 or so computers but managed to send out nearly 4 billion spam messages a day, promoting, among other things, pornography,…
Accused Kelihos botmaster Andrey Sabelnikov claims innocence
Andrey Sabelnikov, the Russian man accused by Microsoft of creating and operating the Kelihos spam botnet, proclaimed his innocence last week. Microsoft said that Sabelnikov, a programmer who lives in St Petersburg “created, operated and controlled the Kelihos botnet,” which at its peak comprised an estimated 45,000 compromised Windows PCs….
Accused Kelihos malware mastermind protests his innocence
A Russian man who has been accused by Microsoft of being the mastermind behind the Kelihos botnet has used his LiveJournal blog to protest his innocence. View full post on Naked Security – Sophos View full post on National Cyber Security
Microsoft accuses Russian of masterminding Kelihos botnet
Microsoft’s determined campaign against the Kelihos botnet has seen the company file a lawsuit against the Russian man it now believes to be responsible for its operations. In a filing to a Virginia court, Microsoft alleges that Andrey N. Sabelnikov from St. Petersburg contributed code for the malware that set…
Microsoft fails to credit Kaspersky Lab for Kelihos botnet takedown
Microsoft grabbed headlines this week with its report about the successful takedown of the Kelihos botnet, but while the company detailed the achievements of its Digital Crimes Unit, it failed to mention the major role security firm Kaspersky Lab played in the operation. Microsoft’s Kelihos takedown announcement centred on the…