Botnet Master Hits Panic Button, BSODs 100,000 Infected Computers

Botnets are dangerous.  Not only can botnet administrators steal your personal information, but often, on a whim, they can also simply kill your PC.

The controllers of the Zeus/Zbot botnet did just that, hitting the kill switch and BSODing about 100,000 infected PCs.

The Zeus/Zbot botnet first popped up back in March.  It swipes your financial and personal data from your PC via a trojan horse.  Somehow, Zeus also managed to make each installation appear unique to virus scanners so that it would be harder to remove.

Zeus also had a KOS command built-in, otherwise known as "kill operating system" and it was triggered last month.

Why?  No one knows.  Maybe another botnet hijacked Zeus.  Maybe the controllers of Zeus just aren't that bright.

Either way, eventually those systems can be restored and their owners can get back to have their data hacked.

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• Botnet master hits the kill switch, takes down 100,000 PCs (arstechnica.com)
• When Hacked PCs Self-Destruct (it.slashdot.org)
• Good Guys Hijack Botnet, Score 56,000 Passwords in One Hour (blippitt.com)
• Researchers take over botnet, grab 56,000 passwords an hour (crunchgear.com)

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