Botnets: your computer in the hands of organised crime
are arguably the pre-eminent source of internet crime, vast networks of hi-jacked "zombie" computers that in their aggregate power. Used to distribute spam, run phishing scams, attack websites, and host illegal content the truly frightening aspect of bot crime is that the footsoldiers used by the criminal gangs are the subverted PC's of ordinary folk like you and me.
Law enforcement agencies and cyber security experts are currently locked in an arms race with the criminals running the bot-networks. In this interview Steve Santorelli of (I like to think of them as a cybersecurity A-team - but a security thinktank might be more apt) talks about how the threat from botnet is evolving, how peer-to-peer botnets, very hard to take-down, are emerging and what we as individual computer users can and should do to stay safe on-line. The good news there is a bit of common sense about what you download, using firewall and anti-virus applications and regularly updating your computer's software can go a long way towards making sure you aren't inadvertently co-opted into a vast criminal network.
I'll be doing a piece on Botnets on PM today. I'd be interesting from anyone who's been a victim of this kind of attack. Send me a note to ipm [at] bbc.co.uk
UPDATE: Here's an interview with Shawn Henry, Deputy Assistant Director Cyber Division of the FBI who speaks about their fight against Botnets.
UPDATE II: For a British perspective on the issue I also spoke to Det.Constable Robert Burls of the Metropolitan Police's Computer Crime Unit about what British police were doing to fight botnets:
Email us
Listen to iPM