In what can only best be described as a zombie threat to payments security, hackers have resurrected the heretofore-defunct GameoverZeus bot.net that was used to infect computers with malware.
According to internet security blogger Brian Krebs, after a month of inactivity after federal officials shut the bot net down, phishing emails laced with booby trapped attachments started going out from a site that shares roughly 90 percent of its code base with GameoverZeus.
While the previous instantiation of GameoverZeus was based on an advanced P2P network, the undead version makes use of an approach known as fast-flux hosting. That allows botnets behind ever-changing proxy networks of compromised systems more resilient to takedowns.
The botnet is particularly focused on high-dollar corporate account takeovers that frequently were punctuated by massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks intended to distract victims from immediately noticing the thefts. It seems that despite the massive takedown, hackers intend to continue using the site, which the DOJ believes is responsible for the theft of more than $100 million in account takeovers.
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