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After Wannacry, Chinese malware ‘Fireball’ is harming computers worldwide

By Newsd
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After Wannacry, Chinese malware 'Fireball' is harming computers worldwide
Source: theregister.co.uk

Days after Computer malware Wannacry affected millions of computers worldwide, a fresh Chinese malware called Fireball, is harming over 250 million computers across the world.

Check Point, a security firm came out with a warning and reckoned that Fireball comes out of Rafotech, which is a digital marketing agency based in Beijing, that hijacks browsers for improper purposes.

According to the firm, the malware may allow for a third party control over the system, or act as “a prominent distributor” tap for any additional malware.

“Rafotech uses Fireball to manipulate the victims’ browsers and turn their default search engines and home pages into fake search engines. This redirects the queries to either yahoo.com or Google.com,” it said.

“The fake search engines include tracking pixels used to collect the users’ private information. Fireball has the ability to spy on victims, perform efficient malware dropping, and execute any malicious code in the infected machines, this creates a massive security flaw in targeted machines and networks.”

Fireball spreads by being bundled with other software that the user may otherwise want to avoid. As per estimates, over 20% of corporate networks have been affected by Fireball.

“Ironically, although Rafotech doesn’t admit it produces browser hijackers and fake search engines, it does (proudly) declare itself a successful marketing agency, reaching 300 million users worldwide – coincidentally similar to our number of estimated infections,” added the firm.

“Although Rafotech uses Fireball only for advertising and initiating traffic to its fake search engines, it can perform any action on the victims’ machines These actions can have serious consequences. How severe is it? Try to imagine a pesticide armed with a nuclear bomb. Yes, it can do the job, but it can also do much more”, Check Point quoted.

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