McAfee demonstrates Zeus deployment

[nsane.forums]

Company gives reporters a taste of cybercrime

McAfee is running a new demonstration designed to show the ease with which a malware botnet can be built and deployed.

The company allowed reporters to build and manage a botnet running the Zeus malware Wednesday at its Focus conference in Las Vegas.

Using a collection of virtualised systems, the demonstration allowed users to infect a 'victim' desktop by way of an e-mail attachment and then monitor activities on the bot system.

Among the data gathered from the victim system was keystrokes, browsing activity and screen shots of clicked images.

Additionally, the demonstration allowed users to inject code into otherwise legitimate pages and install other infections, such as the Phyllis malware.

Since its discovery, Zeus has become notorious amongst the security community due to the ease of which the malware can be deployed and its ability to inject code into otherwise legitimate sites.

While new versions of Zeus can cost thousands of dollars, older versions of the malware can be obtained for little or no cost.

McAfee Labs head of research Dave Marcus told V3.co.uk that the aim of the programme was to give users a firsthand view of Zeus and how the extent with which it can log activity.

"The whole point is to let people get hands on with what we protect against, " said McAfee Labs head of research Dave Marcus.

"You have got people who have been administering antivirus and managing networks for years who have never seen Zeus in action."

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