Dated May 14, 2009
A pirated version of Windows 7 Release Candidate infected with a Trojan horse has created a botnet with tens of thousands of bots under its control, according to researchers at security firm Damballa.
The software, which first appeared on April 24, spread as quickly as several hundred new bots per hour, and controlled roughly 27,000 bots by the time Damballa took over the network's command and control server on May 10, the firm said Tuesday.
The pirated software was spread via popular piracy sites and online forums, Damballa said.
The software is primarily designed to download and install other malicious packages under a "pay-per-install" scheme, under which the botmasters are paid based on the number of other pieces of malware they cause to be installed, Damballa said.
Read More Here: Pirated Windows 7 RC builds botnet | The Download Blog - Download.com