Microsoft confirms Russian pill-pusher attack on its network

[Corrine]

Complete article at Microsoft confirms Russian pill-pusher attack on its network • The Register

The admission came in response to an article The Register published on Tuesday. It reported that two internet addresses belonging to Microsoft were helping to route traffic to more than 1,000 websites that belong to a fraudulent online pharmacy known as the Canadian Health&Care Mall. Microsoft on Wednesday said an investigation of that report confirmed the hijacking was the result of an attack on machines connected to its network.

One of the IPs was involved in a DDoS of Brian Krebs site:

The attackers then told machines they controlled to access a number of non-existent pages at sites that were pointing to the Internet address my hosting provider has assigned to KrebsOnSecurity.com (94.228.133.16). This forced several hundred or thousand machines to direct their traffic at my site, all in an attempt to prevent legitimate visitors from visiting it.

Pill Gang Used Microsoft’s Network in Attack on KrebsOnSecurity.com — Krebs on Security

 

[hackerman1]

thanks Corrine !

 

[Digerati]

Thanks Corrine. One thing I found interesting in that article was the last statement in the last paragraph:

...the machines that were compromised were running Linux.

 

[Fayla]

Thanks Corrine. One thing I found interesting in that article was the last statement in the last paragraph:

...the machines that were compromised were running Linux.

Now that IS interesting, as Linux PR likes to tell you that their software is unbeatable.

 

[hackerman1]

Thanks Corrine. One thing I found interesting in that article was the last statement in the last paragraph:

...the machines that were compromised were running Linux.

a few lines down in the SAME article:

"We found that two misconfigured network hardware devices in a testing lab were compromised due to human error. Those devices have been removed and we can confirm that no customer data was compromised and no production systems were affected. We are taking steps to better ensure that testing lab hardware devices that are Internet accessible are configured with proper security controls.”

Pasted from <Pill Gang Used Microsoft’s Network in Attack on KrebsOnSecurity.com — Krebs on Security>

but, regardless of operating system, of course you have to configure the computer correctly if it´s going to be secure....

 

[hackerman1]

Thanks Corrine. One thing I found interesting in that article was the last statement in the last paragraph:

...the machines that were compromised were running Linux.

Now that IS interesting, as Linux PR likes to tell you that their software is unbeatable.

Linux IS safe.

but Linux is actually not an operating system, Linux is only the kernel.
when you package the kernel with other software you get a "Linux-distribution", an Operating System like fx. Debian, Ubuntu, Suse etc.

but, regardless of operating system, of course you have to configure the computer correctly if it´s going to be secure....

read my previous post above. ↑

ps. if you want to try a Linux-system, then i recommend Ubuntu or one of it´s variants, Kubuntu / Xubuntu....
i´ve tried several Linux-systems and Kubuntu is one of my favourites together with Debian.
a brand new version (10.10 was relased just a few days ago, on 101010 (a nice "BINARY" date)
(October 10 2010)
ds.

 

[Digerati]

You could use the same argument about kernels with Windows then. That's kind of like saying a car without the body is not a car. I think dune buggy owners would disagree. Note the opening sentence from the Linux Home Page at Linux.org,

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system...

Or Linux.com

Linux is, in simplest terms, an operating system.

Linux IS safe.

:huh: No it's not! NO operating system is 100% safe. Think Linux is free from malware? Think again; it's been hacked. Even going back to 2001, there has been malware targeting it as seen in these articles, F-Secure Computer Virus Information Pages: Adore and Bug Watch: Is Linux safe from attack? 17 Apr 2001.

I also note that compromised computers are always, or at least 99.9% of the time, the fault of human error. The human either failed to keep their system updated, patched, scanned and blocked, or he or she failed to avoid risky behavior, like illegal P2P filesharing - a known distribution point badguys use to release their latest code.