Bot Monster Hunt...

May 2009

Cops hunting monster-botnet builders. The FBI and British law enforcement authorities are trying to hunt down hackers responsible for the largest botnet ever known to the IT world, according to a California-based Internet security company. Finjan’s Chief Technology Officer has told the Financial Times that six people based in Ukraine are suspected of compromising 1.9 million computers worldwide in just two months — many of them in the United States. London’s Metropolitan Police department confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday that their e-crime unit was investigating a botnet created by Ukrainian hackers. The Met would not say what other agencies they are working with, but they do often work with other agencies on cases involving international cyber-crime, including the FBI. According to Finjan, nearly half of the infected computers were in the United States and almost 80 percent of the infected computers were running Internet Explorer, while 15 percent were using the Firefox Web browser, CNET reported. Some critics have said Finjin has not provided evidence that this is the biggest botnet ever.