The attacks on MasterCard, PayPal and other sites underscore the ties between hacktivism and the growth of opt-in botnets. – The WikiLeaks controversy has spilled far beyond discussions of
classified documents into the realm of cyber-security, where reports
of denial-of-service attacks against everything from MasterCard to PayPal have flooded the press.
Behind those reports, though, is the growing issue
of opt-in b…
WiFi security, botnets and security vulnerabilities led the past week’s security news. – WiFi hacking, botnets and zero-days led the news this past week in security.
The release of the Firesheep
extension for Firefox put the spotlight on protecting Internet users. The
tool, which was released at the ToorCon 12 conference, allows attackers to
hijack the sessions of social network use…
Startup ipTrust will let businesses avoid botnets and infected machines by revealing which IP addresses are linked to botnets, malware and other Web-threats. – Endgame Systems launched iPTrust, a cloud-based botnet and
malware detection service that collects and distills security data into a
reputation engine, the company said on Oct. 28. The ipTrust service provides
useful information that identifies which system on an organizations network
has been c…
Security researchers analyzing spam and virus activity in third quarter 2010 saw an uptick in virus activity, hinting at new botnets on the rise. – Spammers are bombarding users with malware-laden spam in order to build up
new botnets, just in time for the holiday season, security researchers said
Oct. 19.
The Google Postini Services team analyzed spam and virus data collected
during the third quarter by Googles security and archiving servi…
The click fraud rate rose to more than 22 percent during the third quarter of 2010, according to Click Forensics. Security pros offer advice on what to do. – Click fraud is rising, and sophisticated botnets are to blame.
Click fraud is a scheme where a person, automated script or computer
program mimics a legitimate user clicking on an online ad to make money from a
pay-per-click arrangement. According to a new report by Click Forensics, the
click f…
A new report published by Microsoft shows that more than 2.2 million PCs running Windows in the United States have been recruited into botnets. The figure refers to the first six months of 2010, with the statistics gathered from the 600 million machines that are enrolled in Microsoft’s various update services or use its Essentials and Defender security packages, reports the BBC.
In the roughly 12 months since the McColo shutdown caused a short but dramatic drop in spam, botnet operators have changed tactics to minimize the impact of authorities shutting down their ISPs. Security researchers discussed how with eWEEK.
– In the year since the shutdown of notorious Web hosting firm McColo,
spammers are growing strong. In fact, researchers at McAfee reported
that spam accounted for 92 percent of e-mail in the second quarter of
2009.
Part of this is the result of improvements by botnet operators. Like
anyone who…
A report by Click Forensics links a growing amount of click fraud to botnets. The increase in botnet-related activity follows an overall upsurge in click fraud in the third quarter of 2009.
–
New research from Click Forensics shows botnets are playing a growing role in the spread of click fraud.
Click fraud is a scheme when a person, automated script or
computer program mimicks a legitimate user clicking on an online ad in
order to profit from a pay-per-click arrangement.
…
Research from Damballa shows the biggest botnets are not always the most threatening when it comes to swiping corporate data. In a study of more than 600 active botnets, security researchers discovered that the smaller networks were often used in highly targeted, more dangerous attacks, Damballa says.
– While massive
botnets such as Rustock and Conficker often make headlines, research from
Damballa released in September shows many enterprises are under attack
by smaller threats they’ve likely never heard of.
After
tracking more than 600 botnets over a three-month period, researchers Gunter
O…
It’s a busy time for botnets.
According to Marshal8e6, spam levels are up 60 percent between January and June. The vast majority of that spam comes from massive botnets such as Cutwail and Mega-D.
Today, eWEEK is focusing on just one of those botnets Rustock which has been spamming users for the past few years. In its latest biannual report, TRACELabs Marshal8e6 noted Rustock uses rootkit functionality to hide itself, and changes spam templates often. It typically uses HTML templates from legitimate newsletters and inserts its own images and links to give Rustock spam a mask of respectability. This also allows it to dodge spam filters.
In this slideshow, eWEEK has gathered images of Rustock in action to help illustrate a day in the life a prolific botnet. (Images courtesy of SecureWorks, Symantec, Marshal8e6 and FireEye)
– …
Spammers have taken to cracking CAPTCHA protection for Microsoft Hotmail, Google Gmail and other Web mail services in recent years. Startup company Pramana is pushing a proactive approach to keeping botnets at bay.
– CAPTCHA cracking has become big business for
spammers, and there has been no shortage of chinks in the armor.
But a startup is taking a new approach to the
battle. Pramana’s
answer available as an appliance or as SAAS (software as a service) is HumanPresent,
the technology the company is aimin…
