Panda: Bots consolidate their position

- Bots consolidate their position as one of the main Internet
threats -
Virus Alerts, by Panda Software (http://www.pandasoftware.com)​

Madrid, January 30, 2006 - According to data from PandaLabs, Panda Software's antivirus laboratories, in 2005 more than 10,000 examples of bots were detected, representing an increase of more than 175 percent with respect to the previous year. Bots represented more than 20 percent of all malware detected in 2005, underlining their position as one of the main Internet threats.

Bots (an abbreviation of 'robot') are programs that can reach computers in a number of ways and then go resident, awaiting commands from their creators, normally via IRC. The success of this threat is fuelled by its multipurpose nature, as it can execute any type of order and even update the vulnerabilities it uses in order to spread, to improve its chances of infecting computers. They normally make up extensive networks, known as botnets.

The 'herders' (those that control the botnets) use malware distributed across the Internet in order to capture and take control of new computers. They then hire out the botnet to spammers, blackmailers, etc. to launch spam, carry out denial of service attacks, distribute spyware, etc. A highly lucrative business at the expense of consumers and even corporate networks.

"Cyber-crime nowadays takes many forms, and perhaps even more dangerous than botnets are the targeted attacks that we have witnessed recently," explains Luis Corrons, director of PandaLabs. "The biggest problem lies in their secrecy: a large company could be serving the interests of a group of malware creators without realizing it. Many of their computers could be at the disposal of these cyber-crooks, with all the legal implications that this might have for the company itself." Until now it is a risk that companies have not considered sufficiently, but one which is no longer possible to ignore."

The new focus of malware, is leading to the professionalization of both the creation of malware and the search for financial returns. For this reason, the number of variants developed in the family could stretch into the thousands, a figure far too high for signature-based protection to cope with. For example, in the prolific Gaobot family, more than 6000 new variants were registered in 2005 alone. Each of these variants generates numerous infections and therefore the total number of zombie computers could reach hundreds of thousands.

"Since being introduced in August 2004, Panda Software's TruPreventTM Technologies have neutralized around 7000 new bot variants, thanks to its heuristic and behavioral analysis technologies, long before signature-based systems were able to react. This figure reflects the potential of proactive technologies, such as TruPreventTM, in the face of the prevalence of dangerous threats such as bots," adds Luis Corrons.

 

im tired of all the bs thats going on with computers these days..