New Windows Worm Builds Massive Botnet

The worm exploiting a critical Windows bug that Microsoft patched with an emergency fix in late October is being used to build a new botnet. Ivan Macalintal, a senior research engineer with Trend Micro, said that the worm, which his company has dubbed Downad.a — it’s called Conficker.a by Microsoft and Downadup by Symantec — is a key component in a new botnet that criminals are creating. We think 500,000 is a ball park figure, said Macalintal when asked the size of the new botnet. That’s not as large as some, such as [the] Kraken [botnet], or Storm earlier, but it’s still starting to grow