Spyke
sh.itjust.works

Ummm ... this is a bit disconcerting. I mean good the gov't did something, but W O W on their ability to uninstall a program from privately-owned computers.

"The investigation culminated late last week, when the FBI redirected the botnet’s internet traffic through computer servers controlled by the bureau and then issued commands to some infected computers to uninstall the malicious software."

-15
czechreply
lemmy.world

Sounds to me like they hacked the bot net rather than used some universal backdoor into privately owned computers.

58

Command & Control for those that don't. It's the mechanism used to control the hacked computers. Back in my day they often used IRC.

8

Right. Undercover FBI was all like "hey hackers, press alt-f4 to check for hidden agents" and they did and then all the zombie PCs shut down and the FBI all cheered

2
Yeatherreply
lemmy.ca

Oh boy can't wait for this to be used maliciously, assuming it hasn't already.

-12
lemm.ee

The botnet was the example of "this" being used maliciously, the government stopped it.

9

This is minor compared to the extant cyberattack capacity of the US government. It’s a drop in the bucket. No, a fraction of a drop in the bucket.

7
SheeEttinreply
lemmy.world

This article is literally about it being used maliciously

5
FuglyDuckreply
lemmy.world

I think they meant the FBI taking it over and not shutting it down.

2
SheeEttinreply
lemmy.world

They took it over to shut it down.

Which I'm fine with, if they had a warrant or court order or something. A real one, not a FISA court. But generally I don't think they should do that.

4

I mean... you assume they shut it down. They said they did. 50/50 odds they didn't give it over to the NSA or CIA or something.

-1

You reached the end