Botnet War: The Story So Far

CSO has been running a series on the fight against botnet herders and releases the latest chapter today. Need to get up to speed? Here's the story so far.

By Bill Brenner, Senior Editor

May 14, 2009 — CSO —

What a Botnet Looks Like
Researcher David Vorel mapped interconnected, bot-infected IP addresses and created this geometric representation; interactive controls let you zoom in and explore botnets' inner workings.

CSO ran this last year, but it's worth looking at before launching into the new content below.

Botnets: 4 Reasons It's Getting Harder to Find and Fight Them
Researchers say vulnerable Web 2.0 applications and peer-to-peer architecture are making it easy for hackers to maintain armies of hijacked computers.

USA (and IE) Number 1 for Botnet Mayhem
Researchers say IT shops aren't doing enough to protect their machines from botnet herders.

Botnet Battle: How to Fight Back, Part 1 (podcast)
Botnet hunter Alex Lanstein details his efforts to find and disable botnets.

Botnet Battle: How to Fight Back, Part 2 (podcast)
Purewire principal researcher Paul Royal on the trend of bot herders working below the radar, and what he learned about the threat while participating in Project ZeroPack.

Botnet Battle: How to Fight Back, Part 3 (podcast)
Gunter Ollmann, vice president of research at Damballa, Inc., about what he sees as the largest and most insidious botnets -- and what security pros should be doing to keep them at bay.

Read more about malware/cybercrime in CSOonline's Malware/Cybercrime section.

Other stories by Bill Brenner

• Print