After it buried the Waledac botnet last month, Microsoft is gunning for another network of zombie computers this month with an update to the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT).

Like Microsoft Security Essentials, the Malicious Software Removal Tool is available free of charge, but unlike MSE, MSRT is only designed to tackle a limited number of malicious samples, and is served automatically to Windows users through Windows Update as an Important download.

Concomitantly with the 16 new security bulletins released this month, the software giant also started pushing a new version of MSRT set up to detect and remove Win32/Zbot.

The Zbot botnet is created by computers infected with malware produced by the ZeuS Builder, a malicious toolkit.

Zbot infected machines are used with predilection in attacks targeting backing institutions, including the Bank of America.

“Although the malware itself is quite complex and varied, the technical acumen required to use and distribute it is actually quite low,” explained Matt McCormack, MMPC Melbourne, Australia.

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Free Microsoft Security Tool “Armed� to Kill the Zbot/ZeuS Botnet - Softpedia

Posted By: JMH
14 Oct 2010