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25 Percent of All Computers in a Botnet?

Posted by Zonk on from the you-might-be-one-of-them dept.

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?

4 of 408 comments (clear)

  1. Bogus Numbers by madsheep · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would be much more inclined to believe that 1 in 4 PC's are infected with one or more of the following:

    - Virus
    - Trojan
    - Worm
    - Spyware
    - Adware

    A few of the above are used almost interchangeable (by some people) and have the capability of effectively making the machine into some form of a bot or zombie (remotely controlled or not). Now, to say that 1 in 4 machines are bots I would have to whole heartedly disagree with. This just isn't very likely. Especially since the lifetime of a specific botnet has gradually been decreasing. Faster AV responses, increased patching, and more bot competition will inherently decrease these odds. Sorry but the daddy of the internet or not.. I think he's off the mark.

  2. South Korea? by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With 99.9% of South Koreans "shackled" to Windows and "sitting behind fat pipes", why are we surprised?

    I keep banning new IP ranges originating from .kr. It wouldn't surprise me at all if 99.5% of them were infected over there.

  3. This will change with Vista by centron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After getting feedback that the majority of their users have Spyware installed on their systems, Microsoft decided to incorporate spyware directly into the OS (embrace and extend). With the release of Microsoft Vista, your computer will come with software that runs silently in the background, regularly checks in with their network, and can be completely disabled remotely, similar to botnet software produced by others.

    While this system is not pre-configured to send spam or generate DDOS attacks like many other botnets, it does have the ability to download new functionality in the background through Windows Update, so this capability could be added at a later date if enough customers continue to install third party botnets. This means that while your Vista computer is already part of a botnet out of the box, it's fairly dormant. As an indication of the omnionous potential of this enhanced system, Microsoft is calling it 'Windows Activation'.

    --

    XeoMage

  4. You Are Required by Law by rubmytummy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    You are required by law...
    • to disconnect any equipment that interferes with the PSTN.
    • to have your dog killed if it is rabid.
    • to clean up a toxic chemical spill on your property.
    • to take the medication that keeps you from spreading tuberculosis.
    • to either fix any interference caused by your ham radio, or stop using the thing.
    So, just how complicated is the solution to botnets and similar public network security issues?