Nearly 2,500 Companies Hacked in Ongoing Cyberattack

A widespread cyber attack that started 18 months ago has affected nearly 2,500 businesses and government agencies. Led by a Zeus variant, it infiltrates corporate and government networks and steals passwords, log on credentials, banking info and other confidential data.

The Zeus botnet has over 74,000 infected PCs under its control and is using them to carry out the attack. 10 federal agencies are among the victims and there is no telling just how much sensitive data the hackers have stolen. Security firm NetWitness did manage to intercept 75GB of stolen data, but there is likely much more out there.

“The botnet is still active and still actively being managed by the organized criminal activity behind it,” NetWitness CTO Tim Belcher told The Register. “Over the last month, we’ve seen it retask its (victim) members half a dozen times looking for different types of information.”

In a surprising twist, the firm discovered that the affected PCs were also infected with Waledec. This could mean there are two cybergangs working together or merely that a solitary gang is using more than one strain of malware to avoid detection.

Among the organizations attacked are Merck, Paramount Pictures, and Cardinal Health. All in all organizations in 196 countries around the world have been attacked. Rumors are swirling that even the Pentagon was hit, but they are declining to confirm any such breach.