Flashback - Gromozon vs. Marco Giuliani

Just a few days ago Marco Giuliani reported that the sleaze behind the Gromozon infection inserted code making it appear that this monstrosity was created by Marco. In an effort to educate the public about this farce, the security community banned together, blogging and posting about it. Someone posted the information on DiggIt! and even more people got involved.

I am very excited to see the update posted at PC al Sicuro this evening where Marco stated:

"Finally some good news. We succesfully obtained shutdown of one of the servers which are spreading Gromozon. Server, hosted in the U.S., was taken offline today and it’ll be taken under investigation.
We at Prevx will continue monitoring situation for new Gromozon variants, providing technical stuff. Now, finally, there’s who’ll manage legal stuff too.
Our thanks go to who helped us taking down the website."

This is just the first step in a long road ahead but the first step is often the most difficult. I am sure a tremendous effort was made behind the scenes to accomplish this.

To all those who have been blogging about this situation, a hearty thank you. Sandi Hardmeier, a Microsoft MVP since 1999 specializing in Internet Explorer, said it best in "You know you're doing a good job when the bad guys bite back..."

"The more people know about Gromozon, and the more people promote and host Prevx's repair tool; the more people blog and say "look at what the idiots behind Gromozon are doing", and the more people spread the word about how to get Gromozon off systems and defeat the tricks Gromozon uses to try and thwart removal, and more the more the anti-malware community join together to fight those behind Gromozon, the harder it is going to be for the Gromozon guys to succeed."

So, we need to keep the pressure on the various governmental agencies to get to the "root" of Gromozon. The home computer user can help too. Make sure your computer has all the Microsoft security updates, firewall, and antivirus software. Explain to your family how important it is not to click on links in emails and, whatever you do, please Beware of Codecs!