A network of bots called DirtyMoe, allegedly operated from China, infected 245,000 Windows computers. Most of the attacks (65,000) fell on residents of Russia, according to Avast. Next, by a large margin, are Ukraine (over 25,000 infections), Vietnam, Brazil, Venezuela, Indonesia and India (10,000-15,000 each). The Chinese botnet was first discovered in 2017. It uses infected computers for cryptocurrency mining and DDoS attacks.
Since its inception, the botnet has taken control of several hundred to several thousand systems annually. In 2021, the program was improved. Bots began to act like network worms and attack remote machines by brute-forcing passwords.
Because of this, over the past six months, the number of infected computers has increased tenfold. In the first half of 2021, 100,000 active systems were already discovered, Avast reported.
The DirtyMoe botnet attacks computers using vulnerabilities in the Internet Explorer browser, which Microsoft no longer supports.
Another common method of infection is key generators, as well as individual assemblies of Windows and popular programs, noted in Avast.
At the same time, the owners of malicious programs target not only Russian systems. They are trying to exploit any network vulnerabilities, the company stressed.
Previously, Microsoft named Russia as the source of most cyberattacks around the world. According to her version, the Russian Federation has committed 52% of the total number of hacker attacks “sanctioned by the authorities of states.”
On June 10, it became known about the hacking of one of the largest video game developers, the American company Electronic Arts. Hackers have stolen the source code for FIFA 21, as well as the Frostbite game engine that underlies many popular releases.
Photo: Pixabay, Pixabay License
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