Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

That is my one question after reading an AMAZINGLY UNINFORMATIVE “news” article on CNN.com this evening!

Three Spaniards were arrested who are suspected of having infected 13 million computers with a program that allowed them to steal personal and financial data in more than 190 countries worldwide!

Spanish Civil Guards worked with the American FBI and computer security firms in Canada, the United States, and Spain to investigate what has been called the world’s biggest network of virus-infected computers (called “Mariposa, or “butterfly” in Spanish)!

In addition to the personal and financial information gained from the infected computers, the malware permitted those who controlled the network to launch a very large cyberattack from the botnet of infected computers.

Personal data from over 800,000 users was found in searches of computers recovered from the homes of suspects, aged 31, 30, and 25, who were arrested last week in the northern Vizcaya province, northwest Coruna province, and southeast Murcia province of Spain.

According to CNN:

“The computer hacking was first detected in May by the Canadian firm Defence Intelligence, which quickly enlisted the aid of Spain’s Panda Security firm and the Georgia Tech Information Security Center in Atlanta, Georgia, the statement said.”

For more of the AMAZINGLY LIMITED details, please see the CNN article.

In a report of this kind, I would expect, at the very least, to see some information about the malware, its mechanism of attack, and the systems that were/are susceptible to the attack. Maybe we will get more details soon. (Note added march 6, 2010: Nope – we learned that the largest botnet in the world was called “Mariposa” or “butterfly” [I already KNEW that Mariposa is Spanish for butterfly] – thanks, CNN, but but you still have not told us the mechanism of action of the malware that was used, nor the type of systems infected. I am almost willing to bet money that all 13 million zombie computers were all running Windows, but that is just a “hunch.” C’mon, CNN, inquiring minds want to know!)

Were they all running Windows?

(Note added March 9, 2010: Yep, they were!)

I imagine that several of the companies with my personal and financial information are running Windows. The one Windows machine in my home (it was a gift that I use solely for loading Garmin GPS maps onto a hand-held GPS unit) is NOT on a network and not turned on, most of the time.

-Bill at

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