Tag: Botnet
Who is Responsible for Internet Security: A Response
Basically you have the Australian courts who want to place the onus on the shoulders of end-users. Others want to put the responsibility on Operating System or Application vendors due to their security holes. Finally, you have the Mail System operators or Network connectivity providers (ISPs) who don't take sufficient measures to combat open relays or botnets where infected machines act like SMTP proxies. (Jul 26, 2010)
May Email Security News: New Undersea Cables Feed African Botnets
Email Security Industry news from May 2010 with commentary (May 31, 2010)
Here come the spam police
The German courts may have just opened the floodgates. Their top criminal court ruled this week that home wireless users can be held responsible for not password-protecting their wireless connections. If the unprotected connection is used for illegal file downloads, the owner can be fined up to 100 Euros (currently $126). (May 17, 2010)
Why can’t you stop this spam?
Maybe you’ve seen more spam hitting your Inbox over the past couple of months and wondering, “Why am I paying for filtering? This stuff is obviously spam – why can’t you guys stop it?” The main challenges of being in the spam filtering business are dealing with clients’ expectations on the one hand, and the sheer size of the spam/malware machine on the other. (Apr 16, 2010)
Anti-Social Networking
Web 2.0 is leading us to operate and collaborate more through our web browsers than ever before. Consequently, sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace are being used more aggressively for everything from chatting to marketing. Spammers are loving this. (Apr 07, 2010)
Are machines really the “bad guys”?
Do you know what this is? Of course you do! This, along with some other strange stuff, has gained popularity and become part of our virtual life when browsing the web. CAPTCHAs (as they’re known) are one example of a Turing test: a challenge-response criteria that is used to determine the probability that a remote being is actually a human vs. a computer that’s trying to mimic a human response. (Mar 31, 2010)
Catch a botnet by the tail
Catch a lizard by the tail and it will shed its tail and run free. This is a fun fact of nature (even more fun when you’re a kid) and a very clever trick to fend off a predator’s attacks. And did you know that if you try to catch a botnet, chances are the same thing will happen? (Feb 19, 2010)
How can we stop the botnets?
Botnets are a fascinating piece of software – yes, they really are! Although they lie deep in the “dark” stack of widespread tools that are used to perpetrate cyber-crimes, they really shine as well-engineered structures. They are forced to constantly evolve because of the current and on-going “arms-race” between security experts and cyber-criminals. (Nov 20, 2009)
Botnet Generated Spam
Botnets are networks of compromised machines that are under the command and control (C&C) of one entity - the botnet master. They are typically used for crimes such as denial-of-service attacks, identity thefts, phishing and, most commonly, for sending spam. Current botnets have easy-to-use HTML-based interfaces and can be rented out by spammers for their various spamming campaigns. Researchers reported that during 2008, 85% of spam was generated by six botnets (Mega-D, Srizibi, Storm, Rustock, Pushdo and Cutwail). (Nov 06, 2009)
First Michael, now Patrick. Celebrity deaths yield new spam campaigns
So how does a celebrity's death result in more spam? Spammers take advantage of our thirst for information and know that we will be Googling for the latest news and gossip. (Sep 16, 2009)
Researchers simulate million-zombie botnet
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in California, headed by Ron Minnich and Don Rudish, were able to boot more than one million kernels, or the central component of most operating systems, as virtual machines in a massive botnet simulation. Previously, researches had only been able to create a simulated botnet of up to 20,000 nodes. (Aug 19, 2009)
