Russian Security Firm Says Flashback Botnet Is Not Shrinking

CRN (Computer Reseller News) ^ | 4/23/2012 | Kevin McLaughlin

[johncatl]

Contrary to recent reports, the worldwide botnet of Macs infected with the Flashback malware has remained relatively steady in size, the Russian security vendor Dr. Web said over the weekend.

Dr. Web discovered the botnet -- which it calls BackDoor.Flashback.39 -- on April 4. It claims that more than 817,000 bots have connected to the botnet thus far, and that an average of 550,000 infected machines are interacting with a command-and-control server each day.

[dayglored]

Hey 4Q, let's assume your "statistic" is true.

> true statistic. OSX is the preferred OS for homosexuals and pedophiles.

So you're saying that people who frequent dangerous, dodgy, oft-infected, sometimes-illegal, and generally hard-on-the-OS websites, prefer to use an OS that is more resistant to damage and infection, rather than one that tends more often to get infected or fall over dead even when augmented with so-called anti-malware?

Actually I'm not surprised that people who frequent dangerous websites choose the strongest OS they can get.

Not that I expect Apple to use this statistic as a testimonial. :)

But think, 4Q -- why would you prefer to bring a knife to a gun-fight? Unless you want to lose.

Aside from that, your quoting of that "statistic" is crap trolling. However, the ensuing humorous exchange allows me to overlook that particular implied trespass against OS-X users.

[Justa]

Thank goodness it’s only a Control server. Just think what would happen if it was a Chaos server!

[ReignOfError]

I use ClamXav, a free port of the ClamAV tool for Unix that adds a GUI. I run it every few months, and every now and then it finds some piece of Windows malware that came in on an e-mail attachment or a rogue link. I haven’t tried any of the commercial products.

[antiRepublicrat]

But on a more serious note...true statistic.

Another true statistic -- on average people have one testicle.

I also knew someone whose job was forensics on computers belonging to people suspected of trafficking in kiddie porn. Guess what, 100% of the systems were Windows.