This is the VOA Special English Technology Reportfrom http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish
Last time, we
told you about efforts by Microsoft to stop the cybercrime operation known as
Zeus. Zeus hackers use a network of infected computers, known as botnets, to
steal personal information from computer users.On March twenty-third, officials
seized computer servers in two states, Pennsylvania and Illinois. The servers
were said to be operating some of the worst known Zeus botnets. Richard
Boscovich is with the Digital Crimes Unit at Microsoft. He says the operators of
the servers did not know they were linked to cybercrime. He says, "The hosting
providers in and of themselves are not necessarily in cahoots with the
criminals." Zeus botnets are positioned all over the world. Mr. Boscovich says
they act as command and control centers for the infected computers. It's not
just one botnet but probably hundreds of different botnets that come from this
particular code base, he says. And, he says, the Zeus botnets are not easy to
identify. These command and control centers are constantly moving. So it takes a
lot of effort to be able to identify where they were, or where they are and
where they are going to be. Microsoft says it is studying information gathered
from the servers that were seized. It hopes to gather more evidence against the
unidentified Zeus operators. It also hopes to identify and notify the more than
thirteen million computer users that have been infected with the Zeus malware.
Mr. Boscovich says there are many things that users can and should do to protect
themselves from harmful software programs. At the very least, he says, they
should be using legitimate software that has been purchased from creditable
providers. And he says every computer must have current anti-virus software.
Most of all, Mr. Boscovich says, computer users must be careful about e-mails.
In his words, "The bad guys are extremely adept at sending e-mails that appear
to be from friends, from family members or from banks or companies."Microsoft is
not alone in targeting botnets. Security experts from CrowdStrike, Dell
SecureWorks and other companies took down a large botnet known as Kelihos in
March. As quickly as Kelihos was stopped, researchers say cybercriminals began
working to build another botnet. Also, the European Union announced steps to
fight cybercrime. These include plans to establish a new cybercrimes center in
The Hague. For For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal. For more about the
Zeus botnets, go to voaspecialenglish.com. (Adapted from a radio program
broadcast 09Apr2012)
원문출처 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoF5CRW-ksI&feature=youtube_gdata
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