Botnet Infection Takes Less Than Five Minutes to Infect the System

According to reports released by the security researchers of Microsoft's Internet Safety Enforcement Team, the average time a botnet takes to infect a computer is less than five minutes.

The researchers also stated that botnets have advanced so rapidly in recent months that it has become harder to detect them. In 2007, botnets started using a technique called fast-flux in which a rapidly changing series of Internet addresses are generated that make spotting and blocking of a botnet attack more difficult.

Though experts have reduced the size of botnets to approximately 300,000 PCs, it continues to be twice the total number detected in 2007.

However, the exact numbers might be far more. Microsoft researchers, who trace about 1,000 botnets at any point of time, stated that the biggest network still commands several million computers.

Moreover, computer security officials said that no computer running with an internet connection is free from botnet attacks. They suggest computer owners to deploy different programs available for malware detection; use a firewall as well as install the necessary security patches for their systems' operating software and other applications.

Nevertheless, these measures might not give the desired results. In the second week of October 2008, computer security company Secunia said that it had tested 12 major computer security packages and discovered that the most effective one spotted only 64 out of 300 software flaws that allow malware installation on a PC.

Organizations also revealed that the only way to fight the botnet menace and present day computer offenses is to establish an international alliance beyond national and corporate boundaries.

Moreover, experts pointed out that botnet attacks now come with their own anti-virus software, allowing the applications to acquire control over a system and subsequently eliminate other rival malware.

T.J. Campana, Cyber-Crime Investigator at Microsoft, said that recently his team was surprised to find a botnet which turned on Microsoft's Windows Update utility after compromising a PC to protect it from an intrusion by competing infections, as reported by The New York Times on October 20, 2008.

Related article: Botnet Misuses Google Analytics

» SPAMfighter News - 30-10-2008

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