http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/12/new_zeus_features/

makes one rethink the DRM found in the hacker tools, no

Wait. An ostensible "information security" firm is publishing its own malware-creation tools? OK, granted, I have only a layman's grasp of the law, but isn't it illegal to produce tools to commit crimes with?

Maybe they produce the tools so that companies can test their own products. Kinda like "OK boys we tried to make this hack 'resistant', have a go at it!" and see if you can break your product while it's in-house.

i guess one can re-purpose the old "guns dont kill people, people kill people" argument on this.

heck, i know remote control and monitoring tools that went from ok to spyware by way of one checkbox in the installer generator. Said checkbox would make the resulting program not show up in the windows tray (tho still killable via the process list), and it allowed remote control and monitoring of the computer it was installed on. Thing is, this was a tool aimed at corp helpdesk or similar, so that they didnt have to move to the actual user computer to solve problems, unless said computer was not on the network for some reason.

oh, and no, secureworks is not the company making zeus. They just analyze how it works to help detect and remove it. The actual creator is a unknown third party, selling it on the black market. Cybercrime have become very organized lately.

You can thank Russia and China for that, mostly.