If there’s such a thing as “ethical malware,” the software security firm Symantec said it might have identified an example: a piece of code named Linux.Wifatch that has infected “tens of thousands” of routers but appears to work to protect those devices from different types of well-known, more damaging malware.
Wifatch was first described in November in a two-part post on a blog called “Loot Myself: Malware Analysis and Botnet tracking.” It is a “sophisticated piece of code” that connects infected routers to a peer-to-peer network of other infected devices, according to Mario Ballano, a senior security response engineer at Symantec. Unlike other malware, however, Wifatch doesn’t appear to be used for malicious purposes, he said.
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