Vnuet is reporting that security experts have noted a massive botnet (1,000,000 compromised PCs) being formed and the suspicion is that it will be used for a holiday season (Christmas) attack on Internet consumers.
"No one knows yet exactly what nefarious activity the army of captive PCs will be used for. But the chances are it will be a massive onslaught of phishing aimed at defrauding web consumers in the run up to Christmas."
Story, here.
Historically, criminals take advantage of the Christmas season due to the sheer volume of transactions - which makes it easier for them to disguise their activity.
According to Wikipedia, a botnet is "a jargon term for a collection of software robots, or bots, which run autonomously. This can also refer to the network of computers using distributed computing software."
In less technical terms, Internet criminals take over people's systems and then use them to launch spam and scams without the owner's knowledge.
According to the report - no one is certain who is behind the botnet being assembled - or exactly what the intention is. Less than effective protection (security) is normally the reason a computer can be compromised.
If the intention is phishing - the Anti-Phishing Working Group has a great page on their site on how the average person can avoid these scams, here.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
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2 comments:
Thanks for the sniper video link. I have seen that one before, pretty amazing.
This is a great place to find out all sorts of info. Keep up the good work!
FTGF!
well, i heard that at the new Internet Explorer there is measures anti-pishing ... anyone have more info ??
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