Study says over 1m Windows PCs compromised

[KiwiCoromandel]

Study says over 1m Windows PCs compromised

By Sam Varghese

March 18, 2005

A study by the German Honeynet Project estimates that over a million internet-connected computers, the majority of which are running Windows XP and Windows 2000, are infected with bots and can be harnessed by crackers to launch attacks.

The group said that once an attacker had compromised a machine, he or she normally installed an IRC (internet relay chat) bot - also called a zombie or drone - on it. IRC is a means of real-time communication over the net, either one to one or in forums called channels.

The Honeynet Project is a non-profit research body of security professionals dedicated to information security. The name derives from the fact that they use computers called honeypots to attract attackers; data is then collected and analysed.

The compromised machines form a botnet which can be remotely controlled; each botnet consists of tens of thousands of machines and can thus pose serious threats, the researchers said.

Given that huge number of people have broadband connections, even a botnet of 1000 PCs would yield considerable bandwidth and also, due to IP distribution, make filtering by those under attack very difficult, the study said.

An analysis of the traffic captured showed that most of it targeted ports used for sharing resources on machines running all versions of Windows

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http://smh.com.au/news/Breaking/Study-says...1085984429.html