'Botnet' threat

Right now, a hacker named '0x80' is controlling more than 13,000 computers in more than 20 countries. 0x80 is typical of a new generation of hackers that can earn a lot of dollars from computer intrusion techniques.

With 'hackers' (hackers) level hackers, even though their faces are flickering to 0x80, no computer can be safe.

In 6 hours lying on the bed, 0x80 (21 years old) can break into nearly 2,000 personal computers around the world. As soon as 0x80 slept, the software written by 0x80 was still "plowing" on the Internet to search for computers with security holes, chase some viruses and turn computers into unwilling slaves.

Ivisible man

Under the control command from 0x80, slave machines began to retrieve and install automated software to import e-mail advertising from pornographic websites. After the installation process is done, the victim machine automatically detects the Internet to attack other computers. And so in just a short time, a series of computers will obey the command from the invisible 0x80.

After two weeks of work, 0x80 received an average of $ 300 from one of the online advertising companies. 'All day I just sat at home, chatted for fun while making money' - 0x80 told the Washington Post reporter (in the interview kept secret the name and residence of the person) - 'I accept a check every 15 days by mail and many other checks from Canadian banks every 30 days'. 0x80 said 'hackers' earns an average of 6,800 USD / month, not a small sum for a dropout. In 'specialized' language, computers that are hacked (and remotely controlled) called 'robots' or 'bots' and 'bot' computers are called 'botnets'. For hackers, botnets are used to transmit millions of e-mails advertising the cellar, from Viagra to other nonsense advertisements, using spyware.

The problem of spyware is a chronic headache for the online world. The 'service' of e-mail advertising from spyware has become a $ 2 billion industry along with the boom of botnets.

A few months ago, the FBI named Jeanson James Ancheta, 20, in Southern California, installing spyware on a botnet of more than 400,000 computers! Ancheta victims include a computer system at the US Naval War Center and the Defense Information System. Like Ancheta, 0x80 is also the team in making botnets. Living with family in Central America, 0x80 (lying to family that works for a web design company) spends a lot of time researching network security and programming spyware with continuous improvements.

0x80 victims include enough components and many use online accounts at PayPal, eBay, Bank of America and Citibank . 0x80 said I could even write a program that would remove old spyware in the victim's computer to install new spyware. 0x80 is paid US $ 0.20 / time to install spyware for US computers and US $ 0.05 for computers in 16 other countries including France, England and Germany.

The suffering is called Spam

According to the anti-spam company Brightmail, global electronic spam has increased 10 times in the last 9 months and has now become a 'permanent threat'. Only in April 2004, there were more than 3.1 billion spams (August 2003, the world has only about 300 million spam). There is nothing uncomfortable with every day receiving countless spams with miscellaneous content, mainly advertising consumer goods, services, non-cultural products and even propaganda of bullshit.

In the US, spam began to attack more than 10 years ago, when millions of US computers received ads of the '10 fastest ways to make money ' and so far spam has become the permanent suffering of American Internet users. During President Bill Clinton, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) set up an e-mail address (uce@ftc.gov) for consumers to respond to spam samples in order for FTC to know which company is advertising. Report via e-mail with spam and from there punish. Currently, the FTC mailbox contains 27.5 million spam samples and every day FTC receives about 85,000 more spam. The more you wander and trade on the Internet, the more likely you are to be attacked by spam.

In the online world, stealing e-mail addresses is a child's game. Hackers can buy e-mail addresses from employees who work at Internet service providers or steal from mailboxes where you trade online. Meanwhile, the growing number of websites asking for some personal profile data (eg for US newspapers) has made e-mail addresses more likely to be stolen and become. The goal of spam.

Destruction?

At the World Economic Forum held in January 2004, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates once declared misery of spam will end before 2006. However, based on the current situation, the elimination of spam in the world is impossible. In November 2003, the US Congress passed anti-spam laws and in mid-December 2003, US President George W. Bush also signed the first national law against spam. The prospect of a 'non-spam world' as envisioned by Bill Gates is far from being a reality.

In the short term, economic and social damage of spam is not negligible. According to Radicati Group Inc., about 980 million e-mail accounts are active worldwide (40% of them are corporate e-mail accounts) with a daily e-mail number of about 15 billion. letter. EWEEK reports that spam lost an average of 1,934 USD / worker / year (in terms of work efficiency loss). The loss in July 2003 was only an average of 874 USD / worker / year. According to Popular Science magazine, in 2003, spam caused more than $ 10 billion in damage to American industrial villages. So it is not without any doubt that US Senator Debra Bowen said: ' I feel indignant and disgusting ', when she talks about spam.