Canadian Company Gets Spam Fined $ 1.1 Million

A Canadian company has been fined $ 1.1 million for violating the anti-spam legislation. According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) sent the company Compu-Finder "electronic messages" without the consent of the recipients.

Moreover, there was a working unsubscribe. The emails, which the company between July and September last year sent, were offered various trainings. Research by the Canadian " Spam Reporting Centre "showed that 26% of all spam complaints received were about the emails from Compu-Finder. The company has 30 days to contest the fine or to pay the amount on appeal.

Anti-virus company: Europol Operation Failed Against Botnet

The operation against the Ramnit botnet that Europol several European investigative services and security last week performed partly failed, causing hundreds of thousands of computers controlled by cybercriminals, according to the Russian anti-virus company Doctor Web.

In the operation were seized hundreds of domains that the botnet used to communicate with infected computers, as well as different servers. The Ramnit malware did over a period of almost five years in total to infect 3.2 million computers. The last half year were approximately 500,000 computers have been infected with the malware.

Doctor Web suggests that there are several variations of Ramnit are active, including one which since September 2011 has been announced. This version can steal all kinds of passwords and FTP programs would have on hundreds of thousands of computers are active every day. "Despite the message in the media about a successful operation against the Ramnit botnet, our analysts have no decrease seen botnets that monitors the anti-virus laboratory," the anti-virus company.

According to researchers from the virus fighter would definitely twelve Ramnit botnets operate. Two of these botnets exist together from more than 500,000 infected computers. "The figures show that the parties behind the operation to destroy the botnet Ramnit evidently not been able to turn off all servers of this botnet," as the researchers conclude whatsoever.

Virus Switched On Millions Of PCs From Windows Update

The Ramnit botnet that this week by Europol, investigative services, Microsoft and security from the air was removed the last 5 years more than 3 million computers Windows Update, Windows Firewall, Windows Defender, User Account Control and the virus off, leaving the machines did not receive important updates and risked getting infected by even more malware.

Ramnit first appeared in 2010. The malware is designed to steal passwords and data for Internet banking. Also, .exe virus, .dll- and .html files on hard drives and connected storage devices infect. Once activated switches the kinds of security measures in Windows as well as the present virus. Ramnit above used a special blacklist with more than 300 different anti-virus programs.

The last time the virus would only disable Microsoft virus scanners. The software giant detected the last six months, some 500,000 computers were infected with Ramnit. Since this week the cyber criminals behind the botnet would no longer be able to communicate with the infected computers. The infection and custom settings are still active.

Virus scanning and removal tools could, however, detect and remove malware. Microsoft recommends that users, therefore, to perform a virus scan regularly. In addition, it is recommended to be careful when opening emails and messages on social media from unknown users and software only download from the website of the supplier. In this way, new infections can be prevented.

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Large Botnet Achieved By Europol In The Air

Europol has partnered with European investigation services a large botnet off the air that had infected 3.2 million computers worldwide. It involves Ramnit botnet that for years was active and on infected computers include passwords booty made ​​and other data.

Computers were infected by opening links in spam emails and visiting infected websites. Ramnit is also a so-called "file infector" who .exe, .dll- and .html files on hard drives and connected storage devices infected. Once a computer became infected malware added the infected code in these files, and as soon as they were started spreading the infection further. Also were found public FTP servers that were used for distributing Ramnit.

In addition to investigative agencies from the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Britain Europol coordinated the operation with Microsoft, Symantec and Anubis Networks . During the operation of the botnet Command & Control servers were turned off, and the 300 domains that were used to control infected computers.

"This successful operation demonstrates the importance of cooperation between international investigative agencies and private industry in combating cybercrime. We will remain committed to disable botnets and disrupting the infrastructure used by criminals for cyber crime," said Wil van Gemert, Deputy Director of Europol. Microsoft and Symantec have now been delivered solutions to remove the malware from infected computers.