Digital Dead Security Threats:

The role of Bot networks in Ddos, Phishing, Spamming

There are digital dead among us. Hackers, spammers, scammers, organized crime, and even certain governments have raised armies of infected PCs and servers in the last few years often for malicious purposes. The resulting success and growth of these networks indicates future arenas of combat involving information security professionals. In the last few years zombie machines and their resulting remotely controlled networks have rapidly emerged as a key power player for hacking activities. These networks are responsible for many of the Ddos attacks, phishing, and spamming scams originating from the Internet's electronic ether. Ironically, most owners of these infected machines are unaware that they have been unwittingly drafted into the armies of the dead.

What is interesting about these "bot networks" is the manner in which infected machines are located, infected, and then directed by remote commands via the zombie controller(s). Once these machines are enslaved in the bot army they are used for whatever purposes the commander sees fit, though the attacks mentioned above are certainly the more lucrative areas for bot networks. For these reasons hacking has continued to evolve with these digital dead nets being deployed in increasingly destructive ways. While it is not the dawn of the dead (these botnets have been around for years) it is surely just into the early morning hours of this new day for the digital zombie armies from the shadows.

Brief Bot Network Overview here.

Bots and Ddos Attacks here.

Bots and Phishing / Spamming here

Future Forecast here