'Shylock' malware hit by authorities

RainfallWithin · July 11, 2014

Quotes from BBC News source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28245598

A cybersecurity threat known as Shylock has been disrupted thanks to an international operation, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has said.

Shylock was said to have been installed on more than 30,000 machines worldwide, but mostly targeted bank accounts of people living in the UK.

As ever, the NCA urged the public to make sure their security software was fully up-to-date.

The action follows a similar effort led by US authorities last month.

The Zeus botnet was said to have infected more than a million computers worldwide.

The US is seeking a Russian man, Evgeniy Bogachev, in connection with the operation.

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This latest action has been led by UK intelligence services, working in conjunction with security experts based in The Hague.

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The Shylock malware - so named because passages from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice were found within its code - affected computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Authorities were able to seize computer servers that were controlling Shylock.

However, cybercriminals are often quick to react when disrupted by server seizures.

In the case of Zeus, authorities predicted it would take just two weeks for criminals to reorganise themselves and restart the operation.

Personal Thoughts

It appears that the authorities have managed to seize the servers used, yes, but not the people who organised the hacks. I'm quite sure that this could very easily be repeated.