Security News > 2021 > January > UK govt gives malware infected laptops to vulnerable students
Some of the laptops distributed by the UK Department for Education to vulnerable students have been found to be infected with malware as reported by the BBC. The devices are given out for free by the government to support disadvantaged students unable to access remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic, including children and young people who have no digital devices, have only a smartphone, or share a single device with other family members.
Infection is not widespread. However, as revealed by Bradford Schools teachers, some of the files found on the government-provided Windows laptops were infected with malware as discovered while preparing the devices for delivery to students.
The malware found on the infected laptops is Gamarue, a modular malware strain known to be commonly used by Russian and Eastern European cybercriminals.
Some Gamarue variants have worm capabilities that enable the malware to spread to other devices via infected removable devices such as portable hard disks and USB flash drives.
Since 2011 when the first samples were spotted in the wild, Gamarue has mainly been used to deliver a huge list of other malware payloads including but not limited to the Petya, Troldesh, and Cerber ransomware, the Kasidet malware used for DDoS attacks, the Lethic spam bot, as well as Ursnif, Carberp, and Fareit info-stealing malware.
While Microsoft disrupted the Andromeda botnet by taking down its servers in a coordinated global operation with law enforcement and other partners in 2017, the malware still infects devices on a daily basis to this day using the removable drive spreader module.