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Microsoft Readying Massive Real Time Threat Intelligence Feed

Posted by samzenpus on from the dangers-of-the-day dept.

chicksdaddy wrote in with a link to a story about a Microsoft project that will share security information in real time with customers and law enforcement. The article reads "Microsoft has proven that it can take down huge, global botnets like Kelihos, Rustock and Waldec. Now the company is ready to start making the data it acquires in those busts available to governments, law enforcement and customers as a real time threat intelligence feed. Representatives from the Redmond, Washington software maker told an audience at the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) here that it was testing a new service to distribute threat data from captured botnets and other sources to partners, including foreign governments, Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and private corporations."

4 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Bad idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    sounds like a violation of the users' privacy

    just because my computer is part of a botnet doesn't mean I have agreed to have my IP and other info sent to government agencies, especially foreign governments

    1. Re:Bad idea by lennier · · Score: 2, Interesting

      According to your "logic," or in this case lack thereof, if you leave the doors to your home or car unlocked, you've 'waived your right to privacy,' i.e. government agents are free to ransack your belongings, place surveillance devices in and around your home/car, take what they like, et. al.

      Replace "house" with "car" and yes, that's pretty much exactly what happen at the moment. If you leave your car doors unlocked and someone steals it and uses it to commit crime, do you really have an expectation of a hard-cre "right to privacy" that would prevent the police from stopping searching that car - even using deadly force against it?

      A non-networked computer is like a house, yes. A networked computer is much more like a car, because it "travels" and interacts with other computers and can break into and destroy them. You really need to know what you're doing when you own one.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
  2. good idea? by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Just wait till those running the botnets use this real time information as a tool to avoid detection/capture.

    wouldn't it be advantageous if they can tell what botnet behaviours are picked up by the detection tools in real time?

  3. So let me get this straight by giorgist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. Some "criminal" bot net grabs my private data.
    2. Microsoft infiltrates bot net.
    3. Microsoft hands the data to government in real time. They are not responsible on what the data contains.
    4. Government has my data legally ?

    Does this not sound like the police getting criminals to do their dirty work ?
    What would be the intensive to bring down the bot ?
    How do I know who set up the original bot ?
    Should I trust Microsoft ?
    Should I trust the government ?