ZeroAccess Click-Fraud Botnet Back In Action Again
After six months of silence, the ZeroAccess botnet -- aka Sirefet -- is back in action. Fortunately, it's operating at a smaller scale than it was a couple years ago.
Researchers at Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit have discovered new activity by the once-disrupted botnet. ZeroAccess is actually two peer-to-peer botnets -- one for 32-bit Windows, one for 64-bit -- that both manipulate all major search engines and web browsers. Historically, it hijacked search results, directing users to malicious sites or fraudulently charging businesses for extra clicks on their ads.
In December 2013, Microsoft, Europol, and the FBI teamed up to disrupt ZeroAccess. At that time the botnet had infected nearly 2 million computers all over the world and was costing online advertisers upwards of $2.7 million every month.
