The dark side of the web - The Computing Universe: A Journey through a Revolution - page 251

In another recent example, the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit worked with the
financial industry and the FBI “to disrupt more than 1,400 Citadel botnets which
are responsible for over half a billion dollars in losses to people and businesses.” 7
A last example is particularly worrying. In the case of the Nitol botnet ( Fig. 12.9 ),
Microsoft found that nearly 20 percent of brand new PCs purchased through unse-
cure Chinese supply chains were already preinfected with Nitol malware.
A supply chain between a manufacturer and a consumer becomes unsecure
when a distributor or reseller receives or sells products from unknown or
unauthorized sources. In Operation b70, we discovered that retailers were
selling computers loaded with counterfeit versions of Windows software
embedded with harmful malware. 8
This malware is particularly worrisome since it can be spread to friends and
colleagues through a USB memory stick.
Fig. 12.9. A cartoon strip from Microsoft
showing how to evade evil botnets.