Microsoft identified Botnet as the top risk

For Aaron Kornblum, what he wants to destroy most is the "botnet army". This is a term that refers to zombie computers - lost control by hackers without users' knowledge.

According to unofficial statistics from security firm Symantec, in the first half of 2006 alone, more than 4.5 million computers worldwide joined the corps. And according to Kornblum, they are the backbone, the lifeblood of today's cyber criminals.

" Botnet is the weapon that most criminals use online professionally, because they have the power to concentrate ," said Kornblum, a senior expert at Internet Security Tightening Force (ISE) at Microsoft. . " That power can be used on any malicious intrigue or action on the Internet ."

Source: Security Labs This powerful botnet army is the force behind spam, phishing and denial-of-service attacks. Most recently, cyber criminals used botnets to "Click virtual" to "pick up" advertisers. They ordered thousands of computers in their hands to automatically click on an online advertising banner, thereby requiring advertisers to pay them more money.

Phishing is becoming more sophisticated

ISE forces were established in 2002 with the goal of eliminating cybercrime. Initially, the group had only 3 staff specializing in virus and spam research. But up to now, the number of experts participating in ISE has risen to 65, dealing with all kinds of problems such as child pornography, fraud and of course the botnet.

Over the past year, ISE has helped the judiciary to eliminate many phishing scams on a global scale, such as the summoning of a gang in Bulgaria forged as its own customer service . Microsoft.

In addition to botnets, Kornblum said Microsoft was still forced to consider phishing as another serious risk. Phishers are increasingly cunning and more sinister: They masquerading as reputable and sophisticated websites. More importantly, they are redirecting attacks.

" Phisher is no longer focused on leading banking brands like Citibank. They are moving down to medium and small financial institutions, where they are probably wary and knowledgeable about phishing. customers of these institutions are less wary of phishing . "

Botnets: The number one source of spam spam

Botnet is changing the nature of cybercrime, said Daniel Druker, vice president of marketing for Postini security firm. Initially, botnet was born from the need to "break" the hacker is the main, but now, they have turned into an extremely powerful money need.

In the past year, botnets have emerged as the number one source of spam, allowing spammer access to an infinite amount of bandwidth. Since they no longer have to pay for outgoing e-mails, they freely distribute large email, attach an image file to deceive the filter. In addition, a large botnet network makes it difficult for security businesses to identify and prevent them.

Druker says about 50,000 computers are distributing spam and malicious content every second. Usually, zombie computers will operate continuously for 45 minutes, then silence for users to not recognize.

A few years ago, Bill Gates predicted that the spam problem would be solved by the end of 2006, but in fact proved that the prediction was "absurd" and "illusion".

For his part, Kornblum refused to predict when the botnet problem would be solved. " The only thing I'm sure is that this problem will continue to evolve. Botnet is the most serious risk today ."

Trong Cam