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25 Percent of All Computers in a Botnet?
Beckham's_Ponytail writes to mention an Ars Technica article, with some disturbing news out of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Vint Cerf, one of the 'fathers of the internet', has stated that the number of botnets online is larger than believed. So large, in fact, that he estimates that at this point one in four computers is infected with botnet software. We've discussed the rise of botnets numerous times here on Slashot, but the image of 150 million infected computers is more than a little bit sobering. With the extremely lucrative activities that can be done with botnets (such as password ripping, spamming, DDoSing), as well as reports of organized crime adopting 'cyber-terrorism' as a new line of income, is it likely that law enforcement will ever be able to curb this particular bane?
Just wait until they merge and become Skynet. Then we'll really be in trouble.
'Loose' is when your pants are three sizes too big. 'Lose' is when you misuse 'loose'.
95% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Luckily, this statistic is one of the few 9% of statistics which aren't made up so quickly.
That would mean that 75% of computers would not be infected, ergo that 75% of users finally got the clue of protecting their system against virusses and malicious websites. Is 75% running Linux without notifying the nerds? Hey, we nerds run the minority system here! I am switching to MS Windows right now.
(Another statistics victim)
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
I've got 4 computers in my house... now I've got to figure out which one of them in part of a botnet!
I was going to post something about imagining a Beowulf cluster of these or of welcoming our new botnet overlords, but the bot on my computer started threateNO CARRIER
SIGSEGV caught, terminating
wait... not that kind of sig.
I got a call from Road Runner a few years ago, when my younger brother had inadvertently set up an open relay. The conversation went like this:
Me: Y'see, my brother just installed Linux, and...
RR Tech: And now he thinks he's Net God?
> ...don't bother with/have never heard of antivirus software?
They have antivirus software. It came with the computer when they bought it four years ago.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Actually, you have not taken this analysis far enough. Next you must remove all computers owned by cats, as cats are fastidious animals, and as natural hunters quite concerned with security. My research says 10% of all windows computers are owned by cats.
Next, you can't count windows computers that have been smashed with sledgehammers. If you can't figure out why, I pity you. My research says that 17.54979% of all windows computers have been smashed with sledgehammers.
Also, it would be ridiculous to count computers that have been taken over by Skynet. Technically, they ARE part of a botnet, but this is really a seperate, and very real, very important issue. Here, my research indicates over 1/4 of all windows computers are now part of skynet, so we have to count those out.
As everyone knows, there are a significant number of aliens present on the planet, and a significant number of them are silicon based life forms posing as high end windows computers while they persue research for their doctoral dissertations on the common homo-sapien couch potato. This amounts to about 22% of windows computers.
We can therefore conclude that, if I've done my math right, 2 out of every 1 windows computer is part of a botnet!
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Sure. The following utility will detect a botnet member:
/WINDOWS ] && echo "Am a bot"
#!/bin/sh
[ -d
If you're on Windows, you might need to install cygwin first before running it. Works really well.
Judging by some blogs I've seen, I suspect you're right.
The nice thing about the internet is no one knows you're a dog.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Thank god I only have 3 computers then.
Ramen worm? I guess it consisted of Spaghetti code! :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
...millions of Windows systems suffer from Virus Infections, Spyware, Trojans and Adware.
3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
How dare you suggest people use IE for security, you bastard!
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
Won't that install the WGA virus?
What?
What about "Windows malicious software removal"?
Surely these botnets should be dying in their millions every Patch Tuesday....
What happened to that?
No sig today...
s/removal//