Web Security News

Pirated copies of Windows 7 RC used for botnet

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Pirated copies of the Windows 7 release candidate that have been making the rounds are infected with a Trojan horse that has already built a botnet with thousands of PCs, according to security researchers.

The researchers said the tainted software first appeared on April 24 and spread to as many as 27,000 zombie computers by the time the security firm took over the network's command and control server on May 10, according to CNET News.

Researchers said new installs of the pirated Windows 7 RC are occurring at a rate of about 1,600 per day with broad geographic distribution, although since the firm's takeover of the command and control server, these new installs are not controlled by the botnet.

Pirated copies were leaked on BitTorrent sites with a Trojan horse that, once downloaded, attempts to install a bundle of other malware on the infected machine, researchers said.

Pirated software has been used previously to spread malware. Hackers used pirated versions of iWork '09 and the Mac version of Adobe Photoshop CS4 in an attempt to build a Mac botnet.

A report from the Business Software Alliance and IDC estimated that software companies experienced $50 billion in losses in 2008 due to piracy.
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