
US, European police take down highly elusive botnet known as Beebone - ghosh
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/04/us-european-police-take-down-highly-elusive-botnet-known-as-beebone/
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ch
"Authorities are in the process of contacting Internet service providers and
computer emergency response teams around the world to help identify and
contact individual victims."

I have this image of a white van pulling up to a curb and out pours a team of
technologists in hazmat suits who descend on some hapless computer user's home
to forcibly reinstall Windows on their HP Pavillion.

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spacemanmatt
...restocking disks wiped by extortion-ware from NSA archives, replenishing
bank accounts

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Fuxy
With the growing number of crap-ware being installed whenever you try to
install something on windows I'm amazed that there are windows computers not
part of a botnet.

After using Linux as my daily driver for the past 5 years I had to reinstall
my windows partition and when I tried install some new software I haven't used
before it completely messed up the entire install to the point where I decided
to scrap it and re install again.

Lesson learned use VM's wiener you try something new especially on windows.

It's gotten worse in the 5 years i haven't used it that much.

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realusername
Keeping a windows machine virus-free/crapware free is really really difficult.
There is always something which is installing something else. The best I've
found to manage it is to check regularly using Malwarebytes and using
Glasswire to monitor the network connections, but yes, it's far from ideal.

~~~
cdr
Really difficult for a non-technical user, absolutely. For a technical person,
more annoying than difficult.

~~~
realusername
That's the point, botnets are not mainly composed of computers used by
technical users.

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henpa
Is there a way to be 100% sure that my PC won't belong to a botnet? I once
read about a spyware that keeps persistant even after a format/install. Is it
possible to be safe with Windows 8.1? Or should I use Linux?

~~~
thaumasiotes
> Is there a way to be 100% sure that my PC won't belong to a botnet?

Of course. Don't connect it to the internet.

~~~
ionwake
It could connect itself. Best make sure it is not connected to a power source.
It is the only way to be sure.

