Malware and Botnet Operators Going ISP

Trailrunner7 writes to mention that malware and botnet operators appear to be escalating to the next level by setting up their own virtual data centers. This elevates the criminals to the ISP level, making it much harder to stop them. "The criminals will buy servers and place them in a large data center and then submit an application for a large block of IP space. In some cases, the applicants are asked for nothing more than a letter explaining why they need the IP space, security researchers say. No further investigation is done, and once the criminals have the IP space, they've taken a layer of potential problems out of the equation. 'It's gotten completely out of hand. The bad guys are going to some local registries in Europe and getting massive amounts of IP space and then they just go to a hosting provider and set up their own data centers,' said Alex Lanstein, senior security researcher at FireEye, an anti-malware and anti-botnet vendor. 'It takes one more level out of it: You own your own IP space and you're your own ISP at that point.'"

Comments

Friends don't let friends surf the web in IE

[Enderandrew]

It took years, but Firefox continues to gain where IE continues to fall behind.

I really honestly believe if all the FOSS advocates out there made an effort to switch a handful of family and friends to Linux, that they in turn would do the same.

I'm converting my family and friends because I'm tired of being asked to clean viruses and the like. With the web being as dangerous as it is, can we in good conscience allow our friends and family who don't know any better continue to fire up IE and infect their PCs?

Re:Friends don't let friends surf the web in IE

[Aeros]

?!? what does this have to do with this article?

Re:Friends don't let friends surf the web in IE

[DomNF15]

In the spirit of discussing FOSS, Linux (I believe, but could be wrong), is still missing support for a bunch of consumer devices, like iPods/iPhones, and digital cameras, etc. And there are a lot of niche apps that just don't work. Let's say I use Solidworks for CAD/CAM drawings, I don't think that will run natively on Linux. That is why a lot of people are not so keen to jump on that bandwagon. Mind you, I happen to run various Windows/Linux distros at home (and every box has Firefox as the default browser)...each has their role/strengths/weaknesses. If the problem is stupid users, then fix stupid users, don't just switch software and expect the problem to go away completely, chances are it will come back to bite you, eventually. I understand that requires more effort, but it's probably more effective in the long run. Or would you rather put a piece of tape over the blinking clock on your VCR?

Re:Friends don't let friends surf the web in IE

[Anonymous Coward]

Firefox is just a dumbed down version of Mozilla.

Can you morons stop dumbing down Linux far enough for all your friends and family to use, or do I have to switch to FreeBSD or something?

Do you seriously think that all Linux needs is better marketing?