4.5 Million PCs Slayed by 'Indestructible' Botnet

In what looks like an attempt to outdo the other, in terms of the amount of harm it can cause, a new, fairly sophisticated botnet has been unearthed. Although details of its identity have just been known, the botnet seems to have been around for much longer. According to reports, the botnet has gained the notoriety of being ‘indestructible’. How else would one explain the 4.5 million PCs that have been affected by the botnet, called TDL-4?

This is how it makes its way!

In a BBC report, it was learned that the virus targets PCs running on Windows, specifically. The scarier part here is that the virus not only manages to go undetected for most part, it even makes shutting down the system, impossibility. Those unfamiliar with the term would better know a botnet as a network of home PCs that have been brought down by a virus attack. Once the virus manages to gain an entry into the network, accessing the systems remotely becomes a child’s play. These networks are then put in use to conduct further attacks, and so it continues. The report further revealed that botnet manages to install itself in a Windows system file, known as the master boot record (MBR). The virus very cleverly inspects the systems, particularly looking out for vulnerabilities. Once detected, all hell breaks loose on the system’s OS.

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The presence of the botnet has been mostly seen around in the U.S. However, active presence of the same has been witnessed around India, France, U.K., Germany, among others.