| Popis: |
Publisher Summary The botnet is an army of compromised computers that takes orders from a botherder. A botherder is an immoral hacker who uses the botnet for financial gain or as a weapon against others. Botnet technology is the next killer Web application. It is a tremendous force multiplier for organized crime. The money from organized crime has created a fertile technology incubator for the dark-side hacker. The problem they have created is huge, global in scope. Their primary victims are the innocent, the elderly, the young, and the noncomputer literate. Many of the botherder schemes also target this defenseless group. The appetite for power doesn't stop there. In the distributed denial-of-service (DdoS) attack, bots have grown big enough to be a threat to major corporations and even nations. Today's bots are easy to customize, modular, adaptive, targetable, and stealthy. They are moving to a more decentralized approach and diversifying their command and control (C&C) techniques. Law enforcement has begun to catch and arrest some botnet developers and operators. The Microsoft bounty fund has proven useful in improving law enforcement opportunities to find the bad guys. Unfortunately, the court system is in serious need of change. Investigations take months for crimes that are over in seconds. Cases drag out for years, so much so that the affected businesses cannot afford to support prosecution efforts. The penalties being given are rarely more than a slap on the wrist, if anything at all is done. In many cases the arrested individual trades information for a little or no punishment. The public reporting of light sentences and fines sends the message that crime does indeed pay and that one will likely never have to pay the piper. |
