[ insider_reports_insider ]
Bot Battlers Bruised By Botnets
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-01-31
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The scary part of bot infestations running on millions of PCs connected to the Internet comes from the revelation that sometimes the bot herders work cooperatively rather than competitively.
 | | Bot Battlers Bruised By Botnets |  |
In reading the blog post from McAfee's Alyssa Myers about bot activity and efforts to stop it, one might find it difficult to come away from the post with any sense the problem can be solved.
Bots are too spread out across the world. Their operators sometimes turn out to be ones that can't be touched by the law:
Often an iron-clad case will be given to the relevant authorities, only to have the case go nowhere because the bot herders are minors and/or from a non-cooperative country.
Such an admission coming from the people who work the hardest at creating technology to thwart bot infections and activities recalls the case of Sven Jaschan, the creator of the Sasser worm that hit millions of computers worldwide.
Once the German tribunal hearing his case decided that creating Sasser at age 17 was more important than him releasing it on his 18th birthday. He was sentenced as a minor to 21 months probation and 30 hours of community service. He's probably still laughing about that.
More depressingly, Myers noted how cooperation between bot herders has been observed in places:
There has been much made of turf wars within the bot herder community, but the more notable thing in terms of fighting these bots is actually how much they're cooperating. We know they've been pooling resources to code their bots, but apparently they're also sharing botnet resources quite widely (for instance, to take down a particularly robust website that they wish to attack).
Even as inconsistent law enforcement has been cited as a problem, with some nations less than eager to cooperate on prosecutions, the greater issue comes when some bot herders get taken offline. Others just come along to take their place.
The telling quote comes from a ZDNet story about the conference Myers attended, a two-day event hosted at Microsoft to discuss bot fighting efforts among security companies and federal law enforcement representatives:
"Cooperation at all levels, technical, legal, government, is needed to contain the problem," said Righard Zwienenberg, chief research officer at Norman Data Defense Systems, who is slated to speak on sandboxes at the event Thursday. "Without worldwide laws and cooperation, we might lose the battle in the end."
Waiting for the world to cooperate on fighting a crime that may be enriching the less scrupulous governments on the planet...better bring a box lunch and a lawn chair, because people could be in for a long wait.
---
Tag: Botnets
Add to  Del.icio.us |  Digg |  Reddit |  Furl
Get all the updates - 
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
More insider_reports_insider Articles
Insider Reports RSS Feed
|
|
RSS
Archive
Contact Us
Advertise
