The botnet is dead (enough), but now what? You’l recall that Microsoft, working in conjunction with pretty much every organization on the planet, had managed to lop the head off the Rustock botnet. The world’s attention now turns to finding the people behind the botnet. Leads show that the botnet may have been run by as few as two or three people, so actually tracking these people down may prove a… → Read More
It was like a movie. Microsoft, working with domestic and international police, and with corporations like Phizer, had managed to effectively shut down the Rustock botnet last week. Almost overnight the total volume of spam—that was Rustock’s specialty—collapsed. But is the botnet completely shut down, or does its very nature prevent it from every truly being shut down? → Read More
Ten days ago Google discovered that apparently innocuous Android apps were in fact infested with “DroidDream” malware that included an Android rootkit, with the apparent intent of creating a smartphone botnet. It infected more than a quarter of a million devices before Google intervened. The thriller writer in me immediately began to wonder what would happen if black hats built a wildly popular… → Read More
At what point do you stop trying to track and prosecute cyber-criminals? Obviously, you can’t let criminals run around willy-nilly, but when you look at the resources involved in bringing those guys to justice—and are you really nabbing the right guys in the first place?—it’s worth at least talking about. Is fighting cyber-crime about as futile as fighting the war on drugs? → Read More
Twitter. Twitter? Twitter! TWITTER! Yes, the world’s most important Web site has been co-opted by evildoers, being used to control personal information-stealing botnets. → Read More
You know those “have-a-penny/need-a-penny” jars you find at 7-Eleven and whatnot? Here’s a cool way to kill a few hours: go around your town collecting pennies. Then, with said pennies, buy a whole bunch of zombie PCs, then start your own botnet. You’ll be the coolest kid in the neighborhood. → Read More
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Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
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