botnets

One of our listeners is stunned that you can buy a song from John Cage in the iTunes store that is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. In other Apple news, Tim Cook thinks Netbooks suck. And Time Warner says, "Fine, if you don't want to pay our outrageous data fees we won't give you faster Internet. So there."

MySpace CEO to step down http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10225519-93.html

Microsoft in “much better place,” oversight extended to 2011 http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/04/antitrust-oversight-of-microsoft-extended-to-may-2011.ars… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Technology is not enough to help the security industry keep botnets from stealing peoples' money and committing denial-of-service attacks, a top botnet researcher said on Wednesday. His suggestion? Stop the flow of money to their coffers.

"We need to disrupt their business model and make it hard for them to carry out their attacks and make money," Joe Stewart, a security researcher at SecureWorks, said in an interview at the RSA 2009 security conference here.

"Right now, it's risky to surf the Internet with a PC," he said. "I would like to see … Read more

Scientists have simulated a part of the brain, molecule by molecule, and may possibly be able to simulate an entire brain soon. This has Natali excited, because she anticipates being able to download martial arts into her brain. Jason just doesn't want to meet another one of himself. We also discuss the real cost of bandwidth for ISPs, and Immanuel Kant.

Bluetooth 3.0 has arrived http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10224658-1.html

Amazon Video-on-demand goes HD http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/04/amazon-video-on-demand-goes-high-definition.ars

Google profiles in people search http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/search-for-me-on-google.html… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Security firm Finjan has uncovered what it says is one of the largest bot networks controlled by a single cybergang, with 1.9 million infected zombie computers.

The botnet has been in use since February, is hosted in the Ukraine, and is controlled by a gang of six people who are instructing the Windows XP-based machines to copy files, record keystrokes, send spam, and take screenshots, Ophir Shalitin, Finjan marketing director, said in an interview on the eve of the RSA security conference.

The gang has compromised computers in 77 government-owned domains in the U.S. and elsewhere, he … Read more

Researchers have discovered another feature of the Conficker worm that provides an additional clue about the intent of the creators--the worm installs malware that masquerades as antivirus software, Trend Micro said on Friday.

The worm, which has infected millions of Windows-based computers on the Internet, is downloading a program called Spyware Protect 2009 and displaying warning messages saying that the computer is infected and offering to clean it up for $49.95, according to the Trend Micro blog.

The infection alerts repeatedly appear and experts are worried that people may be clicking on them and paying for the software just … Read more

The Conficker worm that has infected millions of Windows-based computers will likely be used to send spam and steal data much like one of the nastiest botnets on the Internet does, researchers said on Thursday after finding links between the two worms.

A week after failing to do anything but snore, the much hyped Conficker worm was roused from its slumber on Wednesday, with infected computers transmitting updates via peer-to-peer and dropping a mystery payload onto PCs. Researchers suspect that the payload program may be a keystroke logger, a spam generator, or both.

Conficker now also tries to connect to … Read more

This story has been updated. See below for details.

The Conficker worm is finally doing something--updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday.

Researchers were analyzing the code of the software that is being dropped onto infected computers but suspect that it is a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data off the machine, said David Perry, global director of security education at Trend Micro.

The software appeared to be a .sys component hiding behind a rootkit, which is software that is designed to hide … Read more

UPDATED on Thursday, April 9 at 12:30 p.m.: The original link to the eye chart broke, but a new, working one has replaced it.

April Fools' Day passed with much angst over and little action from the Conficker worm, but that doesn't mean it's not a threat.

Joe Stewart from SecureWorks has put together an effective "eye chart" that sources its graphics from sites that Conficker would block. Click here to test the eye chart. If you can't see one or more of the images, you're either infected, or image loading in … Read more

As expected, the Conficker worm failed to cause the digital pandemonium that some may have feared.

So, can we all just go back to playing on Facebook and watching the game now?

Not really. Just because the worm failed to create much of a stir on the day it was set to activate, April 1, doesn't mean it won't wake up and act later.

"The (malicious) hackers can tell their worm to do something any day of the year; they're just as likely to do it tomorrow or next Wednesday or in August," said Graham … Read more