How Malware Authors Fight Off Security Researchers
Attackers don't just lay traps for users; they do it for researchers and rivals as well.
A recent case in point is an exploit toolkit linked to a Zeus malware campaign that security pros at The Last Line of Defense report includes a fake administration console that records information about anyone who attempts to access or hack it. Such traps are not unfamiliar to security researchers. Cyber-crime is a business, and when defending that business, the best defense can be a good offense.
"They have been doing this for some time, particularly bot-herders, to protect their botnets," said Jamz Yaneza, advanced threat manager at Trend Micro. "They employ monitoring scripts/stations that once [they] detect threat researchers are lurking ... then instruct the whole botnet—and possibly affiliate botnets—to flood [them] with denial-of-service attacks. This prevents analysis of the malicious network and is a roadblock as well for law enforcement for investigation."
