Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has discovered and disrupted the Glupteba botnet recently that has infected nearly 1 million Windows PCs all over the world. This malware was detected on Tuesday by the security team of Google.
It is being said that it is the largest malware attack till now, and the experts are pointing that the threat actors must be from Russia. So, that’s why they are investigating the whole matter to know all the key details regarding the attack.
However, this is the ‘botnet’ that is being used by the threat actors and is continuously affecting the devices known as Glupteba, which was also used in mine cryptocurrencies.
Google Disrupted The Botnet With a Legal Order
It is being claimed that Google has filed a temporary restraining order and a complaint against two Russian defendants Dmitry Starovikov and Alexander Filippov, and other 15 unknown people in the Southern District of New York.
The complaint states that the motive of the threat actors is to steal user accounts and credit card information. Apart from this, the threat actors also do the following things:-
- Sell ad placement
- Proxy access on infected devices
- Mining for cryptocurrency in the affected computer
- Trademark infringement
- Other cyber schemes
C2 Backup Mechanism of Glupteba
This botnet’s command and control (C2) communication usually applies HTTPS to transmit all the given commands and binary updates among the control servers and the infected systems.
Not only this, the threat actors have used a backup mechanism using the Bitcoin Blockchain to add flexibility to their support. Moreover, the infected systems can recover all the backup domains encrypted in the most advanced transaction from the given below bitcoin wallet addresses:-
- ‘1CgPCp3E9399ZFodMnTSSvaf5TpGiym2N1’
- ’15y7dskU5TqNHXRtu5wzBpXdY5mT4RZNC6′
- ‘1CUhaTe3AiP9Tdr4B6wedoe9vNsymLiD97’
The attackers are generally attacking large technology companies like Google and Microsoft. Therefore, with the help of their own online products these companies are continuously fighting against all cybercrime.
Here, the threat actors have utilized the Google services to spread the malicious software. But, Google has claimed that they have done the following things to mitigate such threats, and they are:-
- Google removed more than 63 million documents from its Google Docs network
- Google has canceled nearly 1,100 email accounts that were utilized by attackers to expand the Glupteba network.
Google has worked with the internet infrastructure providers to obstruct the botnet, but the reports declared that it has only temporarily stopped the botnet.
However, the experts are trying their best to circumvent this unwanted situation, and that’s why Google has notified all its employees to stay alerted from this kind of malware attack.
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