Botnets and a coming storm
August 13th 2007 17:08
Thanks to some assistance from the Net, I now have a better idea of what a botnet is. (The word has links with robot.)
Most of us are aware of emails that contain malicious attachments, which when opened, will infect the recipient’s computer. These are the common virus.
But a botnet is a little different. The PC gets infected as usual, but with a program that then logs onto a particular server, which is known as the command and control server. The botnet creator purchases access to the botnet from the server and then sends out instructions to the botnets residing on any number of Pcs. These instructions cause them to send out spam messages to mail servers. Thus, instead of one spammer sending out messages on his own, dozens or possibly hundreds of machines are doing the work exponentially.
The malware (from malicious ware) that the botnets are sending out can cause all manner of problems, from denial-of-service attacks, the misuse of SMTP mail relays, click fraud to various forms of theft and fraud in the use of other people’s passwords, login Ids, and credit card numbers.
One of the most recent botnet invasions was in January this year when the Storm worm arrived on the scene. From then on until around May some 3,000 botnets were launching Storm attacks. But by the end of July that number had reached epic proportions of 1.7 million.
All of these botnets are sending denial-of-service attacks, that is, when you try and log onto a site you receive a message telling you it can't be accessed. The virus generally arrives as an email with links leading to fake e-cards, or with news stories highlighting catastrophic events. A number of the subject headings on these emails can be found at this Wikipedia site.
Most of us are aware of emails that contain malicious attachments, which when opened, will infect the recipient’s computer. These are the common virus.
But a botnet is a little different. The PC gets infected as usual, but with a program that then logs onto a particular server, which is known as the command and control server. The botnet creator purchases access to the botnet from the server and then sends out instructions to the botnets residing on any number of Pcs. These instructions cause them to send out spam messages to mail servers. Thus, instead of one spammer sending out messages on his own, dozens or possibly hundreds of machines are doing the work exponentially.
The malware (from malicious ware) that the botnets are sending out can cause all manner of problems, from denial-of-service attacks, the misuse of SMTP mail relays, click fraud to various forms of theft and fraud in the use of other people’s passwords, login Ids, and credit card numbers.
One of the most recent botnet invasions was in January this year when the Storm worm arrived on the scene. From then on until around May some 3,000 botnets were launching Storm attacks. But by the end of July that number had reached epic proportions of 1.7 million.
All of these botnets are sending denial-of-service attacks, that is, when you try and log onto a site you receive a message telling you it can't be accessed. The virus generally arrives as an email with links leading to fake e-cards, or with news stories highlighting catastrophic events. A number of the subject headings on these emails can be found at this Wikipedia site.
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