Russia-Linked Porn Hackers Target PCs

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Russian hackers are believed to be peddling porn through hijacked personal computers using a sophisticated "trojan" program that could make you the unsuspecting purveyor of naked kiddy pics.

In late June, spam-fighters noticed that a certain hacker was able to move his web sites around at will, "minute-by-minute," according to Joe Stewart, an Internet security expert at Chicago-based company LURHQ. This made it impossible to track down the true location of the hacker's web site.

Stewart said a thousand systems appeared to be infected by a web server trojan making it possible for the hacker to change his domain name every 10 minutes as he rotated through a catalogue of domains he "owned." Stewart has dubbed the trojan Migmaf, or Migrating Mafia.

Migmaf uses infected computers to send e-mails advertising Russian porn sites. A Boston based e-security expert, Richard Smith, who has also published material on the trojan, said some of the servers being used to distribute porn were also involved in a scam Paypal e-mail scheme that he uncovered.

Because Migmaf uses predominantly dial-up users to deliver its e-mails, such as home and office PCs, it has made it close to impossible for Internet service providers to shut down the addresses.

Every computer and web site has a unique IP number as an identification code and Migmaf makes it look as though the IP number of an infected computer is the one sending spam, thereby hiding the master server.

"Before when people got too many e-mails from a server they could ask the service provider to shut it down. Now they will be much harder to find," Stewart said.

However, Internet virus experts are skeptical that the program poses a serious threat. Denis Zenkin, a spokesman for the Moscow-based anti-virus company Kaspersky Labs, says they have Migmaf logged as a "wild virus," meaning it is still out in the wild and not a single anti-virus company worldwide has seen the original code.

"This means there has not been a case of an infected computer anywhere," Zenkin said. He suspects that LURHQ, the company that claims to have found the virus first on one of its clients systems, is using the little-known program as a PR tool.

But, LURHQ's Stewart argues, Internet virus companies have not logged a case of infection yet because "we just don't know how the virus spreads; the hackers may be keeping a low profile now until they perfect the program when it will become a bigger threat."

One characteristic of Migmaf that points to its Russian origins is its function that checks if a potential host computer has a Russian keyboard layout. If it does, the program exits.

"This suggests the authors are based in Russia," Stuart wrote on the LURHQ web site, although he admits it could also be the hackers trying to cover their tracks.

The program only works on Microsoft Windows-based operating systems, so Macintosh and Linux users are immune, as are Microsoft computers with a Russian keyboard.


Original article here

Gooooo Russian mafia


Jeez, Russians really come up with the best things when it comes to illegal stuff

They could use MY computer... it'll save me a lot of time I commit to downloading porn myself :clap: :thumbup: :P

LOL! Good idea

Maybe I could mail them a list of my likes and dislikes Something like this:

2.No kid porn
3.No gay
4.No gross stuff
5.No animal f**king

Geee, there's not much left... I guess I won't quallify

Originally posted by Greywolf@Jul 19 2003, 02:32 PM
Maybe I could mail them a list of my likes and dislikes Something like this:

2.No kid porn
3.No gay
4.No gross stuff
5.No animal f**king

Geee, there's not much left... I guess I won't quallify

There is plenty of stuff, personally my WANT list would go

Lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian

Originally posted by Syanide@Jul 19 2003, 04:15 PM

There is plenty of stuff, personally my WANT list would go

Lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian

Are YOU a lesbian? :P

Originally posted by Greywolf+Jul 19 2003, 05:24 PM-->