World Find New Weapons of Mass Destruction - eWMD

As per the authors of a new report released by the Conservative Hoover Institution, US, botnets and computer malware are believed to be the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), as reported by WIRED on December 10, 2008.

The authors of the report said that botnets, networks of compromised computers (zombies) that automatically execute malicious programs by receiving command from controllers called bot herders, have got a designation of 'eWMDs' which means Electronic Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Apart from this, the report contains the list of reforms that need to be introduced if the large-scale impact of botnet attacks has to be restricted in future, beginning with clear definition of outlawing spam globally.

As per the news reported by the New York Times in the first week of December 2008, the report authors said that malware is spreading at a rate faster than ever before, making proliferation of eWMD more dangerous than any other WMD till date.

Citing examples of the Estonian cyber attacks around one and a half year ago (2007) and some recent incidences in which botnets have been used to spread malware, the report authors identified botnets as the major cause of destruction.

However, the authors stressed on the need of a legislation that empowers private parties to nab cyber criminals and expose them publicly. Moreover, the US Congress should move in a bill to make a law that gives more power to law enforcement agencies to trace spammers and botnet owners who utilize hacked networks to distribute malware and other malicious content. When a server is hacked, the administrator could save the logs that might prove handy while investigating the origin of the intrusion.

The report authors also asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enact new regulations that restrict businesses and other service providers from asking credentials issued by the government and commercial organization to online users. Instead, these businesses should follow risk-based approach to address the credential issue, implying that credentials could be requested in critical areas like online banking, thus preventing cyber attacks.

Related article: WorldPay Customers Receive Malware Embedded Invoices

» SPAMfighter News - 22-12-2008

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