Are you in control of your computer?
You may be part of a botnet!
A bot is a piece of software that compromises a computer
giving control of the machine to a hacker. The compromised machines are
called zombies and a group of zombies is called a botnet. Now that you
know the lingo, why should you care? Botnets can be used to attack other
people’s computers by launching spam, distributed denial of service
attacks, original variants of viruses, worms and other malware, and programs
that steal private information from computers which can lead to identity
theft. There are a multitude of illegal activities that hackers can make
your organization’s computers perform.
So what can you do to protect your computer from becoming
a zombie? Use layered defensive mechanisms. Keep your antivirus and antispyware
software up to date. Keep your operating systems and applications fully
patched. Use strong passwords that are at least eight characters long
that are not easily guessable. Use firewalls when possible. The backdoors
installed by bot software aren’t easily removed and require that
a computer be rebuilt. The protections you put into place today can help
you keep your machine in your control.
In the News
March 21, 2005 - Britain Tops Zombie PC Charts
- Britain has the largest zombie PC population of any country
on the planet, according to the latest Symantec Internet Security Threat
Report... <Read
More>
March 18, 2005 - Botnets More Menacing Than
Ever - You've heard about bots and how they're much harder to
stop than the typical worm or virus. Now there's new proof that they're
advancing with alarming speed... <Read
More>
February 3, 2005 - Botnets Strangle Google
Adwords Campaigns - Security researchers have discovered a way
to shut down or seriously impair a Google Adwords advertising campaign
by artificially inflating the number of times an ad is displayed... <Read
More>
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Botnets & Related Information
Symantec
Security Threat Report - Part VII
Symantec Internet Security Threat Report -
An analysis and discussion of Internet security activity over the past
six months. It covers Internet attacks, vulnerabilities, malicious code,
and future trends. (Free but Requires Registration)
Botnets
and Botherds (Powerpoint)
San Francisco Bay Infragard Board Presentation
Know
your Enemy: Tracking Botnets
Honeynet Project -
Honeypots are a well known technique for discovering the tools, tactics,
and motives of attackers. In this paper we look at a special kind of threat:
the individuals and organizations who run botnets.
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