Finjan discovers 1.9 million malware infected computers

Its Malicious Code Research Centre (MCRC) has discovered a network of 1.9 million malware-infected computersduring investigations of command and control servers operated by cybercriminals. It says the cybercrime server has been in use since February, is hosted in the Ukraine and is controlled by a cybergang involving six people. "These cybercriminals established a vast affiliation network across the web to distribute and operate their malware install-base. They compromised computers in 77 government-owned domains from the UK, US and various other countries," it claims. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CTO of Finjan, explains that the malware is remotely controlled, enabling the cybercriminals to instruct the malware to execute almost any command on the end-user computer as they see fit. He says they can read emails, copy files, record keystrokes, send spam, make screenshots etc. "As predicted by Finjan at the end of last year, cybercriminals keep on looking for improved methods to distribute their malware and Trojans are winning the race," he says. "The sophistication of the malware and the staggering amount of infected computers proves that cybergangs are raising the bar."