FBI identifies one million PCs as part of botnet
Spammers and spreaders of malware hijack other people’s computers for their nefarious deeds; FBI arrests three bot herders
The FBI yesterday announced that its Operation Bot Roast antibotnet sweep has so far identified more than one million hijacked personal computers. The agency also arrested three men and charged them with everything from spamming to infecting systems at several hospitals. The operation is part of an ongoing effort to disrupt the bot trade and identify botnet controllers. “Bot” is the term describing an infected personal computer, and a “botnet” is a large number of hijacked PCs controlled by a hacker, called a “bot herder.” Botnets are used by spammers, criminals launching distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and malware authors looking to spread their applications.
Computerworld’s Gregg Kaizer reports that the FBI, with the help of the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University, is also trying to notify the owners of the more than one million victimized computers it has identified as bots. “Through this process, the FBI may uncover additional incidents in which botnets have been used to facilitate other criminal activity,” the agency said.
It is difficult to accurately estimate the scope of the botnet problem, but Symantec’s most recent report estimated that there has been a 29 percent increase in the number of hijacked computers in the second half of 2006.
