Real-Time Cyber-Attack Map

First time accepted submitter anavictoriasaavedra writes "In October, two German computer security researchers created a map that allows you to see a picture of online cyber-attacks as they happen. The map isn't out of a techno-thriller, tracking the location of some hacker in a basement trying to steal government secrets. Instead, it's built around a worldwide project designed to study online intruders. The data comes from honeypots. When the bots go after a honeypot, however, they're really hacking into a virtual machine inside a secure computer. The attack is broadcast on the map—and the researchers behind the project have a picture of how a virus works that they can use to prevent similar attacks or prepare new defenses."

Comments

who will get the most use out of this?

[hguorbray]

the crackers will probably use this to test their bots and make even better bots and malware...

seems to be the way of the world

-I'm just sayin'

Re:who will get the most use out of this?

[Baloroth]

The honeypot only seems to recognize worms that are already recognized by AV software. All the bot makers would have to do is test it against AV software themselves, either directly or through a scanning-upload site (or even just by checksum, as the map does). It just gives researchers more of an idea of where and with what people are infected (looks like mostly variants of Conficker from the spot checks I did). Bot makers already have all the resources this gives to test their malware against. Might serve as an e-peen boost for them to see how common their malware is, but I doubt it will serve much beyond that.