Target: Windows. Mission: Search and Destroy!

Icepack has just been updated. It seems that the ones who built it do not slack for a second. The moment Windows got a new feature or update, the hackers discovered the vulnerability and designed a tool to attack it. This is called exploiting a zero-day vulnerability. Damn, these guys are fast! It's not the fact that they disclosed the flaw so fast, but that they had written the code for Icepack this quickly. Let's not forget the nature of this program and how hard it is to create such software.

Icepack is malware that you can buy on the Internet along with MPack and other similar programs. It's a standard issue click-and-hack application that big hackers have devised for lazy, newbie malicious users.

In the latest version of this malware there are 8 new exploit tools, as I've seen on InfoWorld, but out of these, 3 are the infamous zero-day exploits. It's all based on the bugs that were found in Microsoft's DirectX software development kit (SDK for short). This flaw has earlier been used by hackers to hijack Windows-operated computers when Internet Explorer users visited malicious sites. Of course, the temptation came via spam messages, that's just one of the reasons people are fighting spam, not just because it's annoying, but because it can lead to nasty consequences.

Hackers are getting more and more vicious these days. It's one thing to hack a site by yourself - that's just being bad. But to make another guy hack a site and possibly go to prison, while you are untouchable and get the money - that's just evil. Authorities can't do anything to them, except suing them for not paying taxes for selling that software. To blame the developers for the hacks is just like blaming a gunsmith for some murder. And just like a gunsmith will tell you how to use the damned thing, so will the hackers - they even offer support if you buy their product. So, what's next?