Botnet Firefighter Destroys Petabytes Of Hard Disk Drives With Drill

For permanently erasing hard drives is often the free open source program DBAN recommended, but for organizations with large amounts of hard disks can be very laborious. It is also possible that the hard drive has failed and is no longer so clear.

The Netherlands-based Shadow Server Foundation, an organization dedicated to the fight against botnets, recently had to destroy a petabyte of failed hard drives. Since the organization mainly depends on sponsors and donations, enabling a company was to let the hard disks fee not destroy seen as a good expense.

The solution was for less than 360 euros a drill, a holder, drills, bought a broom and dustbin. Subsequently drill holes in all hard drives. "Maybe it was not the best method to spend our time and holes, it solved our problem to clean up a petabyte hard disks," the organization a number of photos put online by the operation.

Users Turn Off Virus Because USB Malware

Malware that spreads via USB drives is still a major problem, but some users make cyber criminals very easily by ignoring warnings from their antivirus and even disable the security software. That informs anti-virus company Avast.

The virus fighter gives every day some 140,000 people a warning because the Jenxcus worm that was found on the USB stick. The malware last year was the target of a major operation by Microsoft, but is still active, which is also explained by some users. On infected USB drives the worm makes all kinds of shortcuts with the same names as the files that were already on the USB stick. However, the shortcuts point to the malware. Jenxcus also has backdoor capabilities, allowing attackers to gain access to the infected computer.

According Avast let most people remove the malware on their USB stick, but there is also a group that keeps alive and active infection. These users namely refuse to believe that there is a threat and argue that the virus has it wrong, says analyst Antonin Hyza. Then they turn off the anti-virus software so that the malware can infect their computer. One of the most common reasons to disable the virus scanner is that they use the file continuously or that it only involves an image. In the case of Jenxcus, however, refers to shortcuts. Once the computer is infected will infect the newly connected USB sticks again and the infection cycle can repeat itself.

Seagate Mentions Hacking NAS Unlikely

Owners of a Seagate NAS do not have to worry that their system will be hacked through a leak that recently public was made ​​and for which no update available yet, so the hard drive manufacturer to know.Early this month, a researcher revealed a vulnerability allowing attackers Business Seagate NAS systems that can take over connected to the internet.

An Internet scan yielded 2500 potentially vulnerable NAS systems. The researcher had the problem reported in early October last year to Seagate, but the manufacturer did not come with an update. Ultimately, the researchers then decided to publish the details. Yet there is no reason to worry, says Seagate. An attack on vulnerable NAS systems by the manufacturer's own website labeled a "unlikely scenario."

However, the manufacturer will come early May with an update to correct the detected problems. In addition Seagate advises clients how they can prevent their NAS is exposed to possible attacks. It boils down to UPnP port forwarding must be disabled. In case there is manual port forwarding selected forwarding HTTP and HTTPS must be turned off to the NAS.

Computer Worm In South Korean Nuclear Plant Discovered

The South Korean authorities say they are on different devices connected to the control systems of a nuclear plant have found a computer worm and removed. However, it would go to a worm with a low risk. The incident took place in the same power plant where attackers previously managed to steal all data and hard drives of different computers knew .

The Energy Minister Yoon Sang-jick, parliament said yesterday that the latest infection probably was the work of unwary employees, unauthorized USB devices were connected and therefore had spread the worm. The infection would make in any case nothing with previous security incidents, said the minister.