According to Czech news agency CTK, security experts at Masaryk University have uncovered yet another botnet, dubbed "Chuck Norris" by its creators, in honor to the American actor and martial arts expert. As they described it, hackers can infiltrate the network of infected computers and devices to wiretap communications and intercept sensitive data.
The experts, who were working for the Defence Ministry on a cyber-defence project called CYBER, used what is called a "honeypot". Essentially, this consists of an Internet-connected computer that is deliberately allowed to be attacked by viruses so researchers can track their origin. They were able to identify the threat as coming from a server in Italy and as soon as they had announced they had found it, the server was shut down, but was replaced by clones in other countries. According to the same experts, these are likely to be taken down soon too, but only to be replaced as quickly.
The botnet can be used by hackers to steal a variety of sensitive information, such as access details for bank accounts, e-mail boxes, passwords to various services, social networks and other personal data. An array of infected computers like this one can also often be used to mount targeted attacks against well secured servers, although according to Jan Vykopal, head of the security project of Masaryk University, it is still unclear if "Chuck Norris" has this kind of capabilities.
They still do not know how large the botnet is. But they have found infected devices all around Europe and South America, and even some as far as China.
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