GameOver Zeus, a botnet designed to infect systems and steal their banking credentials, was detected to have compromised vogue.com, according to URLquery.net, a website for detecting and analysing malware.
The Department of Justice and the FBI managed to disrupt the GameOver Zeus in June this year. The malware was said to be responsible for stealing millions of dollars from both businesses and consumers around the world, according to fbi.gov.
GameOver Zeus is malicious software that infects computers which then “become part of a global network of compromised computers known as a botnet—a powerful online tool that cyber criminals can use for their own nefarious purposes,” says fbi.gov.
The main purpose of the botnet is to collect banking credentials from compromised computers and use them to manipulate wire transfers to accounts that are already in the hands of criminals. FBI estimated more than a $100 million of losses that GameOver Zeus caused.
Although GameOver Zeus was taken over in June, hackers began rebuilding it and in July experts noticed that they had partially succeeded. Apparently, they have been working on it for a while as GameOver Zeus was just spotted to compromise vogue.com. Several malicious files were detected on the domain after which they were removed. Such file was 1zX67.exe.
In case you are wondering whether your computer is infected, here are a few signs that might give you an answer, as per fbi.gov:
- Your computer is slow.
- The cursor moves by itself without you touching the pad or the mouse.
- You notice unauthorized money transfers or logins to your bank accounts.
- You are denied access to your own files and you are required to pay ransom to unlock them.
In case you are not infected, however, you may want to consider the steps below in order to protect your computer:
- Always have an updated antivirus program on your computer and a pop-up blocker.
- Do not, by any means, use the same password for all your login accounts; use strong ones for each account.
- Enable automated patches for your OS and browser.
- In case you need to download software – always make sure it is from well-trusted websites.
- As strict as this may sound, never click on URLs contained in an e-mail, regardless of who the sender is; you can rather go to the organization’s website directly
The Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) has posted updates on GameOver Zeus and what further actions you can take in case your computer gets infected.
