Zeus sources sold for $ 100,000?

At the end of last year, there was a rumor in the hacker forums that the development of one of the most well-known Zeus Trojans (or ZBot) was discontinued, and the developer transferred the source code of the program to another virus writer. It said that the lucky new owner, the author of another SpyEye Trojan, is trying hard to combine these two families into a new, more powerful product.

However, the new testimonies claim that the source code of Zeus was sold or transferred to a third party, who is now actively seeking new buyers among cybercrime. This may lead to the development of absolutely new versions of Zeus / ZBot.

Specialists from various companies have already pointed out the discovery of new modifications that clearly indicate the combination of the functionality of two Trojans.
')




Sources claim that the author of Zeus - known as "Slavik" or "Monstr" on hacker forums - gave the Trojan code to the author of SpyEye ("Gribodemon" or "Harderman", subject to the support of existing users / customers of the program and the existing botnet. However, there is evidence that Slavik also sold the code to the side, as evidenced by the following screenshots from one of the forums:



The existing system of sales in cybercrime forums is based on reputation based on the number of positive and negative feedback from forum members when conducting transactions (hello eBay! Hello Habr!). The screenshots above show that the nem seller can hardly be a deceiver - he has been a member of the forum since June 13, 2009 and has 18 positive reviews.

nem offers the latest Zeus code for the latest version 2.0.8.9 and warns that it is quite expensive. However, how expensive? At the end of last year, the author of Zeus sold his Trojan with full support for $ 10,000 / for one “license”. Aviv Raff, head of technology and co-founder of Seculert, believes that the cost of the source should be about ten times more expensive than the market value of such "licenses", since the actual owner can continue to improve the code, sell new versions of the Trojan and support it. In this regard, the amount of $ 100,000 should quickly pay off.

The interested person should not run to save gold bars, cash or watch the balance on credit cards - the seller of the code agrees to the transaction only with the help of the untraceable virtual payment system Liberty Reserve. In addition, the purchase must be made using the escrow system of the forum on which the offer is placed - a system that allows the forum administrator to stop possible attempts to deceive during the purchase and sale (and again - hello PayPal!). However, it is obvious that such a system will add more to the cost - namely, 6%.

A source