[LINK] Detailed article on botnets

[Adam Todd]

At 10:54 AM 3/11/2006, Craig Sanders wrote:
>On Fri, Nov 03, 2006 at 09:49:39AM +1100, Kim Holburn wrote:
> > Here is a detailed article on wired about Botnets (and Blue Security)
> > and why we need IDS and how the bad guys have won control of the
> > internet for now:
> > http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/botnet.html
> >
> > A sad story.
>
>i suspect that, in the medium term at least (i.e. for as long as people
>are using Microsoft Windows[1]), the only solution to botnets and viruses
>is to fight them with yet more viruses. monitor the botnet communication
>channels and infect every infected machine with a virus which shuts down
>that machine's network interfaces and/or refuses to boot except in 'safe
>mode'. this would force the owner of that machine to take action to
>secure their machine....and if they didn't, at least it would be off the
>net.

This is not a new idea and has been explored, trialed and actioned on many 
occasions.

>of course, that would be illegal.


That depends on whether there is an unauthorised intrusion into the remote 
system, or whether it was invited.  As virus and worms and trojans 
advertise an invitation, although unlawful, an automated process isn't to 
know that by definition, only that it has a job to do and to do it.