[LINK] Fwd: MR41-05: Australian zombie-hunting program launched

[Howard Lowndes]

rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au wrote:
> Rick Welykochy wrote:
> 
>> Antony Barry wrote:
>>
>>>> From: "Australian Communications & Media Authority"  
>>>> <publishing at acma.gov.au>
>>>> Date: 7 November 2005 11:25:02 AM
>>>> To: <tony at tony-barry.emu.id.au>
>>>> Subject: MR41-05: Australian zombie-hunting program launched
>>>> Reply-To: broadcasting at acma.gov.au
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The Australian Communications and Media Authority has developed and  
>>>> will host a program that finds ‘zombie’ computers on the Australian  
>>>> internet.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I wonder how this software accomplishes its function. Does it
>> poke around the machine's ports to see if it is vulnerable?
>> Perhaps it monitors traffic in/out of the machine looking for
>> known abusive communications patterns.
>>
>> No mention of which operating system they are targeting. I run
>> Mac and Linux. Am I vulnerable? Will this software intrude on
>> my machine? (rhetorical)
> 
> 
> 1) There is not one single shred of technical information offered by 
> ACMA or in the various ISP media releases.
> 
> 2) I can just imagine how someone getting an e-mail saying "Your 
> computer may be infected by a Zombie" is really going to change the 
> world...
> 
> The best I can find out is that the ACMA is going to distribute lists of 
> compromised IP addresses to ISPs and let them deal with the customer. 
> But here, the scepticism button cuts in: I regularly get "your computer 
> is infected" messages spoofing various ISPs, not all of them my own. And 
> in case someone responds "yes but you run Windows", I also get them to a 
> different account that's the office Mac running OSX.

You should worry.  I get them from my ISP's service desk (me) saying my 
(Linux) computer is infected and attaching a helpful fix.  Woops, 
someone has announced a Linux vuln yesterday...

> 
> At least once, I think twice, I forwarded the message to OzEmail. No 
> response ...
> 
> RC
> 
>>
>>
>> cheers
>> rickw
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Howard.
LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http://lannet.com.au>
-- 
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