Focus 2010: McAfee demonstrates Zeus deployment

McAfee is running a demonstration at its Focus conference in Las Vegas designed to show the ease with which a malware botnet can be built and deployed.

Using a collection of virtualised systems, reporters were allowed to infect a 'victim' desktop with the Zeus malware by way of an email attachment and then monitor activities on the bot system.

Data gathered from the victim system included keystrokes, browsing activity and screen shots of clicked images.

The demonstration also allowed reporters to inject code into otherwise legitimate pages, and install other infections such as the Phyllis malware.

Zeus has become notorious in the security community owing to its ease of deployment and ability to inject code into otherwise legitimate sites.

New versions of the malware can cost thousands of dollars, but older versions can be obtained for little or no cost.

Dave Marcus, head of research at McAfee Labs, told V3.co.uk that the aim of the demonstration was to provide a firsthand view of Zeus and the extent to which it can log activity.

"The whole point is to let people get hands on with what we protect against, " he said. "You have people who have been administering anti-virus and managing networks for years who have never seen Zeus in action."