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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info

By | July 18, 2011, 12:33pm PDT

Summary: Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for information related to the Rustock botnet.

Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for information related to the Rustock botnet.

Today, we take our pursuit a step further. After publishing notices in two Russian newspapers last month to notify the Rustock operators of the civil lawsuit, we decided to augment our civil discovery efforts to identify those responsible for controlling the notorious Rustock botnet by issuing a monetary reward in the amount of $250,000 for new information that results in the identification, arrest and criminal conviction of such individual(s).

The Rustock botnet is responsible for a great deal of cyber crime, spam (the botnet has capacity for 30 billion spam mails every day), dodgy pharmaceuticals, counterfeit stuff and pirated software.

The size of the Rustock botnet has already been cut in half, but that still leaves it with hundreds of thousands of systems under its control. In order to bring down the entire botnet Microsoft is now turning to the legal system.

So, if you have any info … well, you could make a few dollars.

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Reward, Microsoft Corp., Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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Not true.
Joe.Smetona Updated - 22nd Jul
@hkommedal .. It's strictly a PR move, but in reality, history has shown they do nothing of significance.

Their source code has been written without regard to security. They just want to apply PR and advertising to keep selling a faulty product. I've used Linux for 8 years without AV and did not have any infections.

MS could do it, but they don't want to spend the extra time making their source code secure on it's own account.

Their "critical patch" information comes directly from the AV companies that document the malware first. There's too much money tied into this system to change it. Microsoft want's you to believe AV is required on every computer, including Linux and Apple, and it isn't.

That's why they can't compete with Apple and Android (LInux) in the smartphone arena. Who in their right mind want's AV on their smartphone?
View in thread
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I'd love it
Joe_Raby 18th Jul
....if someone got an inside look at the MS DCU. To date, I have never seen anyone cover that side of Microsoft. The closest thing I've seen is coverage on the security team (if there was one) when they were planning the Trustworthy Computing Initiative part way through XP's lifecycle.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
gregebert 18th Jul
It would also help if ISP's monitored-for & intervened when excessive emails are being sent from a single end-user connection. The article mentions ~10,000 emails/hour, which is way larger than a typical home, or small business would normally generate.

No need to rant about the vulnerability of MS products; we all know that is a big part of the problem.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
daijames@... 18th Jul
@gregebert
10.000 e/mails an hour is nothing for a small business sending out a newsletter
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
914four 18th Jul
@gregebert
Not all 10000 emails would come from the same source at the same time. If 1000 nodes send 10 emails an hour, how would the ISP catch that?

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Muttz 19th Jul
@914four Well, Bell Canada will shut down their Sympatico Internet service for spam. It happened to someone I know. My junk email was full of spam from her. But, no, she couldn't be infected because AVG said that she wasn't. She got shut down. But our local cable company doesn't catch it. Another friend had the same thing and didn't get shut down. Some catch it, others don't.

I wish Microsoft luck with the lawsuit. Russia doesn't cooperate with anyone. They're not likely to get any bites on the reward either. It's not worth your life.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Dylan_Cooper 19th Jul
@gregebert Ummm ISP's continually monitor that sort of thing. We have our own server and host hundreds of websites. Occasionally one or more of these have had email accounts compromised, resulting in excessive emails being set as spam. The way WE have always found out is that our ISP then blacklisted our mail server....
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Lightning501 18th Jul
how can i get my reward
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
The Punisher 18th Jul
$250,000.00 is nothing especially when half of this will be gone to the IRS. The amount should be one million dollars. Just think about the the millions of dollars caused in damages and Microsoft is going to write this off in their next tax period anyway.
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You're so right
becabill 18th Jul
@The Punisher
A quarter million wouldn't replace the carpet in a Microsoft exec's office. If MS were serious, it would be at least a million, and even that might not get the attention of the Russian Mob!
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
rocketman67 18th Jul
If MS would make it 1mill tax free they would have the culprit in their hands the same day happy
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
cnovy60 18th Jul
@The Punisher Who said anything about the tip having to come from the US? $250,000 would go a long way in parts of the world where they've never even heard of the IRS.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
denverjim 18th Jul
@The Punisher half to the IRS? It's pay, not a gift. I'm pretty sure, Microsoft would make you a 1099, don't ya think?
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
jessiethe3rd 18th Jul
@The Punisher I'm just curious... when will you put up $250,000 of your own money to stop something that has very little to do with actually selling products?

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
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Just blame it on Al Qaeda...
cosuna 18th Jul
... that's what the U.S. government does when something "bad" happens, even though all the evidence points against it.

(Just google "Family Guy Ground Zero", to see what I mean)
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
denverjim 18th Jul
@cosuna Microsoft is offering 250,000. You know Microsoft, correct? Ran by a Billionaire whom now runs the largest non-profit company in the world, called Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation......Nobody said anything about the Government, in the article....in my opinion. Nice useless rant, though.....again, in my opinion.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Al_nyc 19th Jul
@cosuna blaming it on Al Qaeda usually means we are about to get our rights trampled by the government. The two go hand and hand. It's the excuse they continue to use time and time again.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
pohsibkcir Updated - 18th Jul
Reading the comments and feedback here for this article has clued me in on one important thing. The Rustock botnet represents a new kind of warfare, as do all viruses produced to bring down a large number of computers. It's time we stopped treating these things like it's Microsoft's fault. It's like blaming the maker of your car for your tires going flat because you drove it over a bed of nails. What needs to be done is to let any country know that if a citizen of their country writes a malicious virus aimed at US computer, it's an act of war. If it is found that a US citizen is writing this code, then it should be considered treason and the punishment should be meted out for that crime. The people who should be footing the reward costs is not Microsoft, but rather all those corporations who have beeen affected, or are at risk because of the Rustock botnet. This is what happens when a nation turns its back on its young for forty years. Tere is an axiom I've lived my life by for nearly half a century ...

"In life, there are no punishments. There are no rewards. There are only consequences."

It is time people in all walks of society to be obliged to face the consequences. For those of you that think Microsoft are cheapskates and feel they should cough up more money to offer as a reward ... Bear in mind that Microsoft needn't put forth a dime. I am considering going to Kickstarter.com and setting up a contributory pledge funded reward for the pursuit, arrest, and incarceration of Virus authors. Because until we make it very painful for such crimes to be committed, theyll continue almost unchecked. The International Court also needs to take part in correcting this problem. Since it is obvious that CNET, TECHREPBLIC, and ZDNET have started taking their IT cues from such experts as the FOX News Network (who think that computing in the cloud means they will have work stations set up in some cumilus-nimbus formation over the Rocky Mointains), I think after 14 years of loyal patronage, it's time to pack up my kit and go.
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They are not able to efficiently stop authors.
Joe.Smetona Updated - 22nd Jul
@pohsibkcir... I think you are incorrect in stating that it's not Microsofts' fault. In fact, if you go back all the way to Windows 3.1, a pattern emerges that completely incriminates MS.

They never wrote secure code for their OS. Being closed source, they allowed themselves to ignore thinking about intrusion possibilities while designing their products. Also, almost all "MS" features are from other acquired companies, they found it was not profitable to go back and rewrite the code from the acquired company.

They got lazy and when an AV company identified a problem, they published the technical data of the malware. Microsoft scooped it up and used it to create a "critical (after-the fact) update". It's obvious that virtually all Microsoft Critical updates are released after AV providers have revised their .dat files.

You are always taking a chance when using Windows. It's understandable that you would claim "It's time we stopped treating these things like it's Microsoft's fault."

But, really, you don't have any other experience to believe differently. To me, it's all Windows' fault as evidenced by an equivalent OS that is "open source" and doesn't suffer from these maladies. It's silly to keep using Windows when Linux Mint provides the same operation, does not rely on AV, and doesn't get taken over. Many operations are browser driven and there is no difference in browser operation between Linux and Windows.

The TDL-4 botnet infected 4.5 million computers in the first 3 months of 2011. To me, the real problem is that Windows, gleefully opened the door and said come on in and do whatever you want to my MBR and Hard drive and I won't let the user or AV know about it.
The problem isn't the malware, it's Windows ALLOWING something to so thoroughly infect it so easily. It did it 4.5 million times for TDL-4. OK, so you scan and possibly remove it. How does that help if you are infected again the next day. Are you going to perpetually run the scanner all the time?

Linux is secure without AV and doesn't have these issues. My family has been using it for over 8 years, without AV and without infections.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
MrBoa 18th Jul
Great! but wait... Maybe life will be too short for those who claims the money.
Don't forget this is Russia.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Black H@... 18th Jul
Russia Or China my money is leading way more towards China.... Just google the GhostNet 2.0 Botnet just to give you a idea of the power of that Chinese botnet
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Black H@... 18th Jul
I think they should worry more about the GhostNet 2.0 bot net....
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Black H@... 18th Jul
I think they should worry about the GhostNet 2.0 botnet more than the Rustock botnet.....
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
SpecialK82 18th Jul
microsoft has no such story on their site, and further searches of their site yield nothing, although i do have some info.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
walkedtallstoopedover 18th Jul
Thankyou Microsoft for stepping up and getting the ball rolling.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
harishkumar09@... 18th Jul
The Russian government should discourage these authors. But what if the Russian author (or whatever be his nationality) is doing this from another country? Today, a virus author can go and settle in some country, say India with its numerous cyber cafes which are not monitored, writes and uploads this code there, how do we catch him or even know who he was? The code would propagate on its own and infect thousands of computers. The problem with the latest botnets is that they are highly decentralised. Its not one renegade author with a malevolent site hosted in some Russian city, controlling the whole operation. The botnets have distributed structure with possible multiple control points. Each of these nodes consisting of several slave bots can be rented out. This is very difficult. Something similar to mobile distributed SAM network in the modern battlefield, communicating with each other through a wireless network. You need to take each piece out to seriously disable it.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
]AR[*tREMor 19th Jul
@harishkumar09@... these aren't rogue individuals were talking about here... they are highly funded teams of top hacking minds, supported by governments and the very corporations we rely on for our protection (think symantec's blackhat division). Just look at News Corps. phone hacking scandal. People need to open their eye and realize that cybercrime is perpetrated primarily from the backdoor and backrooms of otherwise perfectly legitimate organizations. Then end-game is profit motive not cyberwar. If you want to stop the effectiveness of massive spam campaigns go after the advertiser who is willing to pay that botnet owner to blast their Ch3@p V1@gr@ mailing. Also maybe we should start holding end users accountable for their stupidity. Not having antivirus/antispyware/firewall on your PC should be akin to not wearing your seatbelt on the interstate. It should be illegal to operate an internet connected device without protection, especially one using Microsoft products.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
shan1950 18th Jul
peanuts. let them look for better professionals to do the job.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
danderson@... 19th Jul
So what can I do to make sure my pc at home is not compromised and part of this or any botnet without my knowledge? Would most anti-virus or anti-spyware programs protect against this?
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Muttz 19th Jul
@danderson@... Unfortunately, all the security software in the world won't protect you from some of the stuff out there these days. Variants of the TDL malware are a good example. The criminals make sure that they can get past your AV. They can shut down and hide from the more "heavy duty" tools for malware removal. Right now, the bad guys are winning.

All you can do is keep windows and your security software updated and whatever you do, don't click anywhere on a popup that says that you are infected with a bunch of viruses. Don't even click on the x. It won't close the window. It will install the malware that makes you part of the botnet.
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Exactly.
Joe.Smetona Updated - 22nd Jul
@Muttz ... Also don't count on ZDnet to provide information on really bad Microsoft happenings. TDL-4 infected 4.5 million users in the first 3 months of 2011 and ZDnet hasn't said a word and it's Late July. Search ZDNet for TDL-4 and you get "0 Results". You're the only other person to bring it up here, but if you Google it, there are hundreds and hundreds of other sites with stories on it. Don't trust ZDnet, they are just a propaganda extension of Microsoft.

The only effective anti-virus for Microsoft is called Linux.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Janelle8 19th Jul
ihygvdsfgv
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
Janelle8 19th Jul
sdbfhdsbfghb
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
bradadad Updated - 19th Jul
Crime pays. The big problem of the decade, imho , is that white collar crime is very worthwhile. Without a corporation on your side; kiss your ass goodbye, more or less.
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
EasyTestGuy 20th Jul
It would be wonderful if it works, but I doubt it. Chances are the perpetrator is involved with organized crime and we all know what they do with "squealers".
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
hkommedal 20th Jul
@EasyTestGuy
The offer may be taken up by a competing gang.
At least Microsoft is TRYING to do something about this particular problem.
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Not true.
Joe.Smetona Updated - 22nd Jul
@hkommedal .. It's strictly a PR move, but in reality, history has shown they do nothing of significance.

Their source code has been written without regard to security. They just want to apply PR and advertising to keep selling a faulty product. I've used Linux for 8 years without AV and did not have any infections.

MS could do it, but they don't want to spend the extra time making their source code secure on it's own account.

Their "critical patch" information comes directly from the AV companies that document the malware first. There's too much money tied into this system to change it. Microsoft want's you to believe AV is required on every computer, including Linux and Apple, and it isn't.

That's why they can't compete with Apple and Android (LInux) in the smartphone arena. Who in their right mind want's AV on their smartphone?
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
AxelWiresmith 21st Jul
two words: Ban pop3! happy

Seriously though, how do you collect? I mean the black-list system is a big FAIL! any email not signed correctly should not be forwarded! They manipulate legacy systems that no-longer exist for any reason other than spam! BTW How do I collect? Are they hoping the Russian gov, will collect? I don't see it being a worthwhile exercise on their part otherwise ...
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RE: Microsoft offering $250,000 reward for Rustock botnet info
iforgot@... 21st Jul
The carrot is unreachable because it is extended in front of the donkey on a stick dangling precariously from a string. If any one of us is thinking we might see that reward, we're as dumb as the ass who is trying to get that carrot.

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