Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Government Agencies Feel Botnets' Light Footprint

Patience Waite writes on GCN.com:

In the vast world of the Internet beyond the federal government’s borders, millions upon millions of invisible, automated soldiers are laying siege to the computers of companies and citizens alike.

These “soldiers” are bots—computers that have been taken over by worms, Trojans or other malware, knit together into vast networks and directed by bot-herders, the creators and controllers of these networks, to spew out spam and other useless or damaging content.

Government computers, too, are being corrupted and used as parts of a botnet, but the real threat is more insidious.

Hackers, particularly nation states, are using stealth botnets—they might be termed spearbots—to steal information from federal systems, experts say. This is different from the typical, wide-ranging cyberattack which looks for any hole in the defense.

posted by Fergie @ 1/22/2007 03:22:00 PM