Botnets threaten critical infrastructure

Oct 24, 2006 2:48 PM

Internet security provider McAfee Inc. has highlighted the serious threat botnets pose to corporations, government organizations, national infrastructure and Homeland security in a case study.

The scope of this threat is underscored by recent events in Central America, where botnets repeatedly brought down the national infrastructure of a single country.

A bot is a software robot, also known as a zombie or drone, that allows an unauthorized user to remotely take control of a host computer without the victim's knowledge or permission. Infected computers can be used to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks, send spam and spyware, or commit cyber extortion. According to McAfee Avert Labs, more than 70 percent of spam e-mail is caused by botnets. The major problem with botnets occurs when they are used for attack purposes. For example, if several large botnet armies maliciously join together, they could threaten the national infrastructure of most countries.

A botnet of one million bots, with a conservative 128kbps broadband upload speed per infected bot, can wield a powerful 128 gigabits of traffic. This is enough to take most Fortune 500 companies offline using distributed denial-of-service attacks.

Earlier this year, a global telecommunications company with a business unit in Central America experienced several unusual problems including multiple network outages -- some lasting up to six hours -- which disrupted businesses and national connectivity, and took automated teller machines offline for extended periods of time. It was a botnet-based distributed denial-of-service attack.

"Botnets can result in country-wide outages and disruptions," says Eric Winsborrow, vice president of product marketing at McAfee.

Intrusion prevention -- a preemptive approach to network security -- can identify, alert and block attacks against network infrastructure, systems and end-points in real-time.

Network intrusion prevention systems are a key component of an organization's network security and risk management strategy, and are advocated as best practice by leading experts, analysts, agencies and organizations.

The case study, titled "Killing Botnets: A View from the Trenches" is available for download at www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/white_papers/wp_botnet.pdf

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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