Mariposa botnet is one of many, says expert

Posted by Steven Gaskill

A botnet which infected almost 13 million computers has been closed down, but a security expert has warned that countless more hackers are still in operation.

Earlier this week, Spanish law enforcement officials arrested three people suspected of running the Mariposa botnet, which was a network of infected computers established to collect sensitive data.

The network is thought to have infiltrated around 12.7 million systems and stole credit card data, banking credentials and usernames and passwords for social media and email services.

Commenting on the case, Panda Security technical director Luis Corrons said: "If you take a look from the outside, it is a drop in the ocean. It's cool, it's really good that we've got rid of this case, but these are just three guys that were doing cybercrime - there are thousands out there."

Mr Corrons added that it is also rare for the authorities to be able to track down the people running a botnet and noted that the successful outcome was a result of a collaboration between a number of groups, including Spanish police, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Panda Security.

The expert also pointed out that the Mariposa botnet was so successful because it could spread through peer-to-peer networks or external devices, increasing the ways it could infect IT outsourcing users' systems.