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David Anselmi, a Microsoft senior manger of investigations in the company’s Digital Crimes Unit, sits in the DCU lab there Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012, in Redmond, Wash. Documents unsealed Thursday by a federal court in Virginia describe a new front in a legal campaign against cybercrime being waged by Microsoft. The company says evidence shows cybercriminals are now looking for opportunities to inject malicious software and code into counterfeit versions of computer operating systems even before the machines are wrapped in plastic and sold to unsuspecting customers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)Source:AP
A CUSTOMER in Shenzhen, China, took a brand new laptop out of its box and booted it up for the first time. But as the screen lit up, the computer began taking on a life of canada goose outlet location its own. Now, they say malicious software and computer code could be lurking canada goose outlet los angeles on computers before the bubble wrap even comes off.
canada goose black friday sale The shopper in this case was canada goose outlet mall part canada goose outlet london of a team of Microsoft researchers in China investigating the sale of counterfeit software. They suddenly had been introduced to a malware called Nitol. The incident was revealed in court documents unsealed Thursday in a federal court in Virginia. The records describe a new canada goose outlet england front in a legal campaign against cybercrime being waged by the maker of the Windows operating system, which is the biggest target for viruses. canada goose black friday sale
The documents are part canada goose outlet nyc of a computer fraud lawsuit filed by Microsoft against a web domain registered to a Chinese businessman named Peng Yong. The company says it is a major hub for illicit Internet activity. The domain is home base for Nitol and more than 500 other types of malware, making it the largest single repository of buy-canadagoose infected software that Microsoft officials have ever encountered. Three other unidentified individuals canada goose sale uk accused by Microsoft of establishing and operating the Nitol network are also named in the suit.
canada goose clearance What emerges most vividly from the court records and interviews with Microsoft officials is a disturbing picture of how vulnerable internet users have become, in part because of weaknesses in computer supply chains. To increase their profit margins, less reputable computer manufacturers and retailers may use counterfeit copies of popular software products to build machines more cheaply. Plugging the holes is nearly impossible, especially in less regulated markets like China, and that leaves openings for cybercriminals. canada goose clearance
Canada Goose Online “They really changing the ways they try to attack you,” said Richard Boscovich, a former federal prosecutor and a senior attorney in Microsoft digital crimes unit. Canada Goose Online
canada goose uk black friday And distance doesn equal safety. Nitol, for example, is an aggressive virus found on computers in China, the United States, Russia, Australia and Germany. Microsoft has even identified servers in the Cayman Islands controlling Nitol infected machines. All these compromised computers become part of a botnet a collection of compromised computers one of the most invasive and persistent forms of cybercrime. canada goose uk black friday
uk canada goose Nitol, meanwhile, appears poised to strike. uk canada goose
canada goose uk outlet For Microsoft, pursuing cybercriminals is a smart business. Its Windows operating system runs most of canada goose outlet store calgary the computers canada goose outlet connected to the Internet. Victims of malware are likely to believe their problems stem from Windows instead of a virus they are unaware of, and that damages the company brand and reputation. canada goose uk outlet
But more than Microsoft image is stake when counterfeit products are tainted by malware that spreads so rapidly, Mr Boscovich said. “It more than simply a traditional intellectual property issue,” Mr Boscovich said. “It now become a security issue.”
The investigation by Microsoft digital crimes unit began in August 2011 as a study into the sale and distribution of counterfeit versions of Windows. Microsoft employees in China bought 20 new computers from retailers and took them back to a home with an Internet connection.
cheap Canada Goose They found forged versions of Windows on all the machines and malware pre installed on four. The one with Nitol, however, was the most alarming because the malware was active. cheap Canada Goose
canada goose store “As soon as we powered on this particular computer, of its own accord without any instruction from us, it began reaching out across the Internet, attempting to contact a computer unfamiliar to us,” Mr Stratton said in the document filed with the court. canada goose store
canada goose coats on sale Mr Stratton and his colleagues also found Nitol to canada goose outlet boston be highly contagious. They inserted a thumb drive into the computer and the virus immediately copied itself onto it. When the drive was inserted into a separate machine, Nitol quickly copied itself on to it. canada goose coats on sale
“Our policy unequivocally opposes the use of any of our domain names for malicious purposes,” Mr Peng said in a private chat via Sina Weibo, a service like Twitter that very popular in China. “We currently have 2.85 million domain names and cannot exclude that individual users might be using domain names for malicious purposes.”.
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