[botnet] Forum Topics

Using newly registered domains with a very short lifespan to host malware websites is so last year. It would appear that these days such things are far more likely to be hosted on much older compromised web sites instead. Could this be down to a decline in domain tasting? The …

[ATTACH=RIGHT]21767[/ATTACH]An unnamed Asian company operating within what has been described as a 'high risk e-commerce industry' has been targeted by a botnet which launched a DDoS attack of unprecedented magnitude. According to Distributed Denial of Service mitigation experts Prolexic, which claims to have successfully combated the attack, the volume of …

A new botnet has been discovered which is not only targeting users of UK banks, but doing so in a new and worrying manner. Said to comprise of in excess of 100,000 infected machines, the Zeus 2 botnet is operated and controlled from Eastern Europe according to [URL="http://www.trusteer.com/company-overview"]secure browsing security …

Just because security holes and vulnerabilities get reported to software vendors doesn't mean they are actually patched. A new report from IBM's X-Force security team found that of all the software holes reported in the first half of this year, more than half are still unpatched. IBM's X-Force report is …

Stand up if you like paying your income tax. To all of you who have remained seated, which I will assume is indeed all of you, I have some more bad news: the bogus tax collectors want your money as well, and now they have botnets helping them. [attach]15770[/attach]According to …

Last year security vendors were warning that botnets were not only not dead, but bouncing back in a big way. One suggested that [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/post1080975.html"]botnets would become autonomous and intelligent[/URL], with each node containing inbuilt self-sufficient coding in order to coordinate and extend its own survival, during the course of 2010. …

The latest MessageLabs spam index reveals that relative to its market share, any given Linux machine is five times more likely to be sending spam than any given Windows machine. But what are the facts behind those headline grabbing numbers and can Windows really get off the hook that easily? …

I've seen a collection of articles about computer security breaches originating from China and would like to give a report from the ITYS Foundation. ITYS, for the unaware, is "I Told You So." I've discussed the use of Linux on the desktop for years, touting its security, stability, thousands of …

Botnets are bad for business, and that's the bottom line. The news that a botnet called Kneber has infected 75,000 computers including government and business machines has been spreading online. But while many, if not most, of these reports are claiming that Kneber is a new botnet the truth is …

Thought that 2009 was [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/post975935.html"]the year that botnets died[/URL], well think again Batman, it was actually the year they bounced back. Compromised computers were responsible for distributing 83.4% of the 107 billion spam messages sent around the world, every single day, during 2009 according to a new Symantec report. Indeed, …

I just had a Jaws moment. You know, you think it is safe to go back in the water and then a bloody great shark bites your legs off. Except in this case you can replace the sea with the Internet and the shark with the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4339.html"]equally dangerous Gumblar[/URL]. According …

Botnets are, without any shadow of a doubt, one of the [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2009/09/30/death-taxes-and-botnets/"]biggest scourges[/URL] of IT security today. From sending spam to [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story238033.html"]launching DDoS attacks[/URL] and distributing malware, botnets can be found [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/showentry.php?entryid=1021"]at the centre[/URL] of most of the security problems facing computer users right now. So wouldn't it be fun …

According to the latest McAfee Labs [URL="http://www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/reports/7315rpt_threat_1009.pdf"]Third Quarter Threats Report 2009[/URL] instances of Distributed Denial of Service attacks are growing in popularity. In the last quarter the McAfee Labs observed many new attacks demanding ransom money including those aimed at sports betting companies which were taken out of action during …

You probably call it Halloween, for myself and other pagans it is [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain"]Samhain[/URL], but for the cyber-gangs it is phishing time. Seasonally-themed spam is on the up at this time of the year, Halloween related messages accounting for 0.5% of the daily spam traffic by volume in mid-October according to …

Botnets are, without any doubt, a huge and growing problem. The technology news feeds are bursting to the seams with stories about them: how [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2838.html"]botnets boost click-fraud rates[/URL], how [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2838.html"]botnets control sex spam zombies[/URL], how the cyber-criminals are [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23383/1231/"]building the first mobile botnet[/URL] and even how some botnet builders are …

What a difference a day makes. In the 12 hours following the take down of McColo Corp, a web hosting service that stands accused of being responsible for enabling as much as 75 percent of the world's email spam, the volume of said junk mail recorded by specialists at MessageLabs …

It seems that botnet usage could have been behind an increase in the number of click fraud clicks cited in the latest [URL="http://clickforensics.com/Pages/click-fraud-index.asp"]Click Fraud Index[/URL] which monitors such things. Running for three years now, the index monitors and analyses data from more than 4000 online advertisers and advertising agencies. The …

Security researchers within the Marshal TRACE Team have [URL="http://www.marshal.com/trace/traceitem.asp?article=714"]warned[/URL] that malicious spammers are using fake United Parcel Service invoices in order to deliver a malware payload. Always looking for a new and convincing hook to snare the unsuspecting user into downloading malicious components from the web, this new attack utilises …

Have you ever wondered exactly how a botnet works? A wotnet, you ask? A botnet, I say. You know, the thing that your computer might well be a part of, without your knowledge or approval, which is used to launch distributed denial of service attacks, send spam, distribute malware and …

How stupid do you have to be to get caught by spam email with the subject line of 'we caught you naked [your name] - check the video' is a question I have been asking myself today. Not because I have been caught naked, and if I had my only …

It is not often that a drunken discussion provides anything more than a hangover the following morning, but recently a bunch of IT security experts got talking while the beer was flowing and someone asked the question: what is the biggest threat on the IT landscape today? Everything from 'the …

Security researchers at [URL="http://www.sophos.com"]Sophos Labs[/URL] have revealed that nearly 70 percent of all Linux honeypot infections are caused by a single virus. Perhaps even more shocking, all things considered, is the fact that the virus in question, Linux/Rst-B, is actually six years old now. So concerned is Sophos at this …

The number crunchers at security specialists [URL="http://www.sophos.com"]Sophos[/URL] have published the figures revealing which bits of malware have been spreading the fastest during August. While the fact that infected spam attachments have dropped from one in 322 for the first six months of the year to one in every 1000 for …

For the average user spam has always been an annoyance. For the average spammer it has always been about making money. For the criminal gangs that have muscled in on this lucrative industry during the last few years it is now about territory and control. Control, that is, of the …

According to Symantec, 64% of small businesses have seen a surge in the volume of spam received during the previous six months. And it isn’t the only one: whether you talk to ISPs or security vendors, gateway mail filtering services or end users, the message is the same. Spam is …