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Author Topic: Chinese Computers with Pre-installed mal-bots  (Read 3635 times)

Jimor

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Chinese Computers with Pre-installed mal-bots
« on: 15 Sep 2012, 01:09 »

This might go better in Discuss, but I'll start it here since it's techy stuff, but I wouldn't object if it was moved.

Microsoft has concluded an investigation that has found that some computers made and sold in China had at some point in the supply chain been pre-loaded with software that could turn the computers into zombie bots, that could not only do nasty things to the owners of those computers, but more easily spread viruses and malware to other machines. This appears to be one of the methods being used to create large networks of computers to be used in DDOS attacks and other aggressive behaviors by whoever is controlling them.

I'm always curious how much of this kind of thing is actually run by various governments around the world, with I suppose the unspoken assumption being that Russia and China are the biggest players in "unofficial" hacking networks to carry out underground policy initiatives. I'm guessing that in Russia, it's likely an unholy alliance between the government and organized crime working to attack opponents and make money off of internet/financial fraud, while in China it would be government and commercial interests working together for internet security/control combined with industrial espionage. I wouldn't doubt other pairings of government/private interests in just about every nation these days, however.

One aspect of all the computer crime that does go on in the world from common spamming to highly-sophisticated hacking and fraud is that rarely is the veil lifted on the kinds of people who actually do these things. I think it would make a really fascinating book and/or movie if somebody could really get deep undercover in this stuff and tell the real story behind it all.
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