Ohio coder accused of infecting Macs, PCs with webcam, browser spyware for 13 years A computer programmer has been accused of hacking, committing identity theft, and creating child pornography after allegedly developing custom malware to take control of thousands of computers. Phillip Durachinsky, 28, of North Royalton, Ohio, USA, was indicted on Wednesday on 16 separate charges relating to the alleged …
"Cyber skills"
"cyber hacker"
...can someone please tell the FBI (also other federal agencies, the UK government, etc) that it's not 1996 any more?
It cyber-gets on my cyber-tits.
(even if we can only drag them into the early 2000s by getting them to use the ePrefix - "e-skills", etc - it'll be progress, I suppose)
'Cyber' is still very much a word in the FBI's part of the world. The FBI has a cyber crimes division, not a computer crimes division...
Even outside that word it is fairly well entrenched in the security side of IT. People get hired for cybersecurity positions, not computer security positions.
Kind of like someone extending and re-writing the same application over the years.
Which (it appears) is exactly what has been happening.
The fact it triggers on searches for pr()n suggests a backup strategy that if discovered it would allow the operator to discourage users who found it from reporting it. *
*Or possibly compiling a really comprehensive list of such sites for their personal use.
"
The fact it triggers on searches for pr()n suggests a backup strategy that if discovered it would allow the operator to discourage users who found it from reporting it.
"
Nope. It triggered on porn so that he could concentrate on spying on people who were more likely to be having a wank within view of the webcam. Otherwise he'd be looking at 1000's of boring webcams showing empty rooms, people typing and looking at cat videos.
"For more than 13 years, Phillip Durachinsky allegedly infected with malware the computers of thousands of Americans and stole their most personal data and communications," said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan.
Was his next line - which was naughty as this is the job of the NSA, FBI etc.
"malware dubbed Fruitfly, which could commandeer infected macOS and Windows PC systems."
I'm confused, did the malware infect the systems or were they already infected. What exactly was the infection vector on the infected macOS and Windows PC systems? Were none of these infected systems running a firewall and anti-malware software.
Oh, wait here's a link to a detailed analysis of the FruitFly malware:
"FruitFly .. is thought to have flown under the radar for many years. In this paper we’ll begin by analysing the malware’s dropper, an obfuscated Perl script"
"Though OSX/FruitFly.B’s initial infection vector remains unknown .. we do know that it is installed persistently".
Well that about answers everything, you have to configure your Mac to run obfuscated Perl scripts when you click on them. For Windows I guess the old fashioned method of clicking on a malicious URL or opening an infected email attachment would do. Lastly, given that these infections occurred at research facilities and universities, just what use was the malware detection tools for the money.
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