BOTNETSDaniul Byrd

What are bots? Software that automates

tasks

Can network to share data and act in coordination

Deployment “Drive-by-

Downloads” Social Engineering Spread through

network

Structure Bots answer to

Botmaster Centralized Structure Decentralized Structure

Uses

Spam email Distributed Denial of Service attacks

(DDoS) Harvesting information

KeyloggersEmail AddressesPasswords

Click Fraud Selling or Leasing their services

Detection

Can be difficult

Slow/non-responsive system or crashes

Monitor network traffic

Some will try to defend themselves

Prevention Similar to avoiding other

types of malware Avoid unknown emails

or attachments Avoid questionable sites Be aware of social

engineering tactics

There are bots for non-Windows platforms too!

Legality & Ethics

CAN-SPAM Act (2003)False header informationInclusion of sender’s valid physical addressUse of other’s computers without permissionHarvesting email addressesMore…

TheftFinancial information, ID TheftPasswords

How It Relates

Awareness of malicious botnets can aid in avoiding themCoworkers…

Botnets can be a powerful tool when used legally

References “Botnet Sharing and Linking”. Eggheads.org. Web. Apr. 2014.

<http://cvs.eggheads.org/viewvc/eggdrop1.6/doc/BOTNET?view=markup> “About BotHunter”. BotHunter.net. Web. Apr. 2014

<http://www.bothunter.net/about.html> Mashevsky, Yuri. “The Bagle botnet”. SecureList. Web. Apr. 2014.

<http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/162656090/The_Bagle_botnet> Namestnikov, Yury. “The Economics of Botnets”. SecureList. Web. Apr. 2014.

<http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792068/The_economics_of_Botnets> “Spam Laws: The United States CAN-SPAM Act”. SpamLaws. Web. Apr. 2014.

<http://www.spamlaws.com/spam-laws.html> Liao, Qi, and Zhen Li. “Portfolio Optimization of Computer and Mobile Botnets”.

International Journal of Information Security 13.1 (2014): 1-14. Academic Search

Complete. Web. Apr. 2014 RODRÍGUEZ-GÓMEZ, RAFAEL A., GABRIEL MACIÁ -FERNÁNDEZ, and PEDRO GARCíA-

TEODORO. "Survey And Taxonomy Of Botnet Research Through Life-Cycle." ACM

Computing Surveys 45.4 (2013): 45-45:33. Academic Search Complete. Web. Apr. 2014 Davis, Lidja. “Is Your PC Part of a Botnet?”. Readwrite.com. Web. Apr 2014.

<http://readwrite.com/2009/03/15/is_your_pc_part_of_a_botnet#awesm=~oCMKDXyIwi4FRc>