Automated attacks are coming from unexpected quarters--from across the globe, across town, and most creepily, even from across the hall. According to a recent report from anti-virus vendor Symantec, this year's 450 percent increase in the number of attacks on Windows machines is evidence that automation is proving as efficient for 21st-Century hackers as it did for 20th-Century manufacturers. . Automated attacks are coming from unexpected quarters--from across the globe, across town, and most creepily, even from across the hall. According to a recent report from anti-virus vendor Symantec, this year's 450 percent increase in the number of attacks on Windows machines is evidence that automation is proving as efficient for 21st-Century hackers as it did for 20th-Century manufacturers. By including a backdoor component with their worms and viruses, hackers can gain access to infected machines without the owners' knowledge. Once that access is available, the machines become "bots," controlled remotely by hackers to do their nefarious bidding. The latest disturbing trend sees hackers assembling thousands of hijacked computers into huge "bot networks." Such networks both vastly amplify the hackers' ability to wreak havoc, and complicate the task of authorities trying to track down the cybercriminals. Bot networks can be used for any number of criminal activities, ranging from sending out more worms and viruses with more backdoors, to mass-spam mailings, to launching denial of service attacks, to hosting phishing sites that pose as legitimate financial institutions. The 100 percent increase in phishing sites between September and October of this year is viewed by the Anti-Phishing Working Group as evidence that bot networks have been used to send more payload-bearing e-mails and to host scam sites. The link for this article located at securitypipeline.com is no longer available. . Automated attacks are coming from unexpected quarters--from across the globe, across town, and most .across, automated, attacks, coming, unexpected, quarters--from, globe. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
According to a semi-annual report released by Symantec this week, these bot nets, are growing at an incredible rate. Last year, Symantec saw about 2,000 machines per day recruited into these bot armies. In its new report, that figure had grown to 30,000 per day. An unprotected machine will typically be attacked within 20 minutes of being put on the Internet, according to Weafer. "The fastest we've seen was a machine taken over six seconds after it was connected to the Web," he says. . . .. Weafer is speaking of "bot networks," ad-hoc clusters of several thousands computers that--unbeknownst to the user--are being deployed toward some nefarious end. Bot nets originate when a user unwittingly downloads a Trojan horse program containing malicious code. Sometimes the code gets onto a user's computer when the user clicks on an e-mail attachment. Other times it's embedded in a virus, and other times it's masked as a different program and downloaded through peer-to-peer networks or IRC channels. According to a semi-annual report released by Symantec this week, these bot nets, are growing at an incredible rate. Last year, Symantec saw about 2,000 machines per day recruited into these bot armies. In its new report, that figure had grown to 30,000 per day. An unprotected machine will typically be attacked within 20 minutes of being put on the Internet, according to Weafer. "The fastest we've seen was a machine taken over six seconds after it was connected to the Web," he says. The link for this article located at Technology Review is no longer available. . Investigate the surge of automated systems and their concerning escalation—expanding from 3,000 to 35,000 devices each day.. Bot Networks,Cyber Threats,Symantec Report,Malware Attacks,Internet Safety. . Anthony Pell
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