USA charges 60 people as part of international ZBot investigation

The US Department of Justice has charged more than 60 people in connection with a criminal scheme involving the ZBot Trojan horse.

ZBot, also known as Zeus, is a family of malware that can hijack your computer, making it part of a criminal botnet. Over the past few years cybercriminals have used different versions of ZBot to steal money from online bank accounts, login details for social networking sites and email/FTP information.

It’s not uncommon for “money mules” to be used to transfer money from accounts, once they have been compromised through use of malware.

Details of the precise charges are expected to be released by the US Attorney and Manhattan District attorney at 1 pm EST today.

According to media reports, the action is related to the…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter or Mastodon to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.