Command and Control
An interesting article on eweek discusses a new strategy in fighting botnets: hunting for their 'Command and Control' servers -- that is, the networks and computers that are sending them instructions.
A wise target, to be sure. Botnets are becoming a huge problem. More and more viruses are being designed not to run rampant on the Internet, unfettered and unlimited, but rather to spread in a limited fashion to result in a valuable botnet which is then sold to the highest bidder, for use in wonderful activities, from hacking to referer and comment spam.
Almost all of the comment/referer spam I get comes from botnets. Each hit comes from a new IP, making it nearly impossible to block. It's a rather impressive display of the power and nuisance that botnets impose on the future of the Internet
Comments
This strategy may work now,
This strategy may work now, but it's not inconceivable able that a botnet modification will allow multiple command/control points (like medusa's head) - and even a computer in the actual botnet can be promoted to a command center.