The shutdown last week of a U.S.-based Web hosting company crippled more than 500,000 bots, or compromised computers, which no longer are able to receive commands from criminals, a security researcher said Tuesday.
Microsoft Tuesday took credit for crushing the Storm botnet, saying that the malware search-and-destroy tool it distributes to Windows users disinfected so many bots that the hackers threw in the towel.
A year after the Storm Trojan attacks started, security experts are predicting botnets, instant messaging and social networking sites will continue to pose a threat to corporations that allow their workers Internet access.
FireEye has installed between 10 and 20 nodes of its Botwall appliances at five ISPs to locate bot command-and-control servers and individual zombie PCs that have been taken over by bots.
Arbor Networks is releasing a report Tuesday (9/12) confirming what many in IT security already know: DDoS is still a very popular means to disrupt networks.
One of the biggest security threats today comes in the form of “bots,” software that invades computers and allows attackers to control them. Observers say the hackers that use networks of bots are getting more sophisticated, working together (it’s “evil open source,” says one) and cranking up the profits (it’s “capitalism of the criminal kind,” says another).
Botnets getting nastier
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/110705-botnets.html?net&story=110705-botnets
A group of U.S. Marines hunker down beside a building, enemy fire coming at them from somewhere up ahead. One soldier reaches into his pack and pulls out a few robots that look like large bugs. The bots fly down the street, sending back images that show where the enemy troops are hiding, how many there are and what weapons they're using.
Many readers have no doubt encountered funny-looking images of distorted letters that look as if they are filtered through a haze of mind-altering substances. Sometimes these images are associated with sign-ups for Web pages; occasionally one encounters e-mail systems that demand that one decode the weird letters and numbers to be able to send e-mail to a person being guarded against spam.
The CAPTCHA is the squiggly word that appears on Web sites to stop bots from sending spam and doing other vile deeds. Recently, several computer scientists reported on an innovative application of CAPTCHAs: potentially using the more than 100 million applications of human intelligence in decoding the symbols for useful work.
How do you let people create user accounts or post comments on your Web site without letting spam bots in? Simple -- make your users prove they're human. Many Web sites use CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) technology to try to tell the bots from the people.
Cybercriminals have established vast botnets comprised of millions of computers that are controlled by malicious masters. These bots allow the fraudsters to purchase goods, apply for credit cards, access bank accounts and more – all from the relative obscurity of a compromised device. A new security discipline called device fingerprinting is making it harder for criminals to conduct their illicit business from a device they have overtaken. Learn more about how you can validate if your transactions are co
Imagine a scenario in which a downloadable application turns smartphones into network-clogging bots, causing U.S. mobile-phone networks to fail, and eventually spreads to the wired Internet.
Shellshock/Bash bug exploits can force compromised servers to act as bots and, depending on the types of privileges the servers have, attackers can make them do a lot worse so corporate security pros should patch important affected machines as soon as possible.
One of the key parts of Satya Nadella's keynote address to attendees at Microsoft's Build developer conference Wednesday was a discussion of creating virtual assistants and intelligent chat bots to help users do everything from managing their calendars to booking hotel reservations.
Organized criminals are hijacking millions of computers and using them as zombies that spew spam and malware across the Internet. But there are ways to fight back against the invasion of botnets.
In her recent feature on just how bad the botnet problem across the Internet is right now, Julie Bort likened these zombie computers to termites, saying they burrow in behind the walls of an IT security perimeter, lie dormant for a period of time, then attack on the orders of a criminal bot herder.