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TWIH: Infected computers and racy domains

This week’s stories range from the taking down of one of the largest botnet infections in history to the coming auction and interesting history of one of the web’s premier domain names.

In security-related matters, following reports last week that the Mariposa botnet was operating on a much-wider scale online than previously known, including having been injected into HTC mobile phones sold by wireless services provider Vodafone in the United Kingdom, the massive botnet has been largely taken down with three related arrests made in Spain late last week.

The Mariposa botnet represented one of the largest infected networks known with computers in more than 190 counties being remotely controlled with the apparent aim of targeting government and corporate computers; the proceeds of the botnet would come via the stealing and distributing of sensitive data for the purposes of cyber crime. Canadian security firm Defense Intelligence, the team largely responsible for tracking and identifying the source of the Mariposa infections, said that infected machines had been discovered in major corporate headquarters, bank and government organizations and on the office and personal computers used by many high-profile leaders in Asian countries, along with more than one million computers within the borders of Iran.

This win by security professionals doesn’t necessary signal the end of Mariposa infections, especially given the daunting task of informing more than one million people that their computers have been compromised, but analysts hope that this latest victory will lead to a later roundup of remaining culprits involved in the spreading of the botnet virus.

For those familiar with the tale of controversial domain name sex.com and its sordid history, its coming auction at the hands of New York law firm Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf LLP next week may come of something of a shock. With endless news reports, legal wrangling and even tell-all books circling it since its registration in 1994, sex.com has proven to be the web’s raciest virtual property.

Originally owned by Gary Kremen following its registration in 1994, the domain name went on to be stolen only a few years later when Stephen Michael Cohen managed to convince registrar Network Solutions with a fraudulent fax that he was the rightful owner. It took Kremen until 2000 to have the name returned to him and Cohen was later arrested in Mexico after fleeing with the advertising cash he had made from the domain during his three years of ownership, totaling more than one million dollars according to many reports.

Rightful-owner Kremen sold the domain to Escom LLC in 2006 for a reported $14 million and that company will now see if it can profit again from what has been described as the “crown jewel of the internet.” With no attachment to a company of any kind and currently forwarding only to a generic landing page, the new owners of what could easily be one of the web’s most popular destinations will hope the presumably huge purchase price is worth the return.

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Tags: arrest, Asia, attack, auction, botnet, Canada, criminal activity, cyber-crime, data security, Defense Intelligence, domain name, domain sale, domains, Escom, Gary Kremen, HTC, infection, Iran, Mariposa, Mariposa botnet, Mexico, mobile device, Network Solutions, purchase, sale, security, sex.com, Stephen Cohen, United Kingdom, virus, Vodafone