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Zeus Trojan Hijacks 74,000 PCs

by Terrence O'Brien on February 18, 2010 at 02:10 PM

A trojan known as Zeus is slowly making its way around the globe. The malicious program has been discovered on more that 74,000 systems, apparently targeting those in government offices and major companies like Merck, Cardinal Health, Paramount Pictures, and Juniper Networks. Zeus has been creeping onto more and more PCs over the last year and a half, collecting corporate log-in information, as well as Facebook, e-mail, and banking passwords.

Zeus doesn't stop there, though. It can pick any file off a computer and send it back to the criminal hackers, and can force the execution and download of programs, effectively taking complete control of a PC.

Most of the machines infected are in Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States, and it's believed the malware originates from Eastern Europe. While Zeus and its botnet, Kneber, might not have the sheer numbers of a Conficker, the fact that it has infiltrated corporate and government networks in such numbers should cause many of these groups to reevaluate their security protocols. [From: CNET]

Tags: botnet, kneber, malware, security, top, trojan, ZEUS

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