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.

Read this full article at securitypipeline.com

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment!