Episode 0015, 09/16/2007
Title: International Cyber Battles, Botnet Armies Attack, and Ads on Your Cell Phone
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the Week, Episode 15, recorded September 16th, 2007.
This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information.
This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - International Cyber Battles
Last week I reported that the computer systems in the Pentagon had bee hacked allegedly by sources in the Chinese government. There have been new developments in that story. Now not only is the US pointing its finger at China, but so too are the UK, Germany, New Zealand, and France. All five say that their government computer systems have been penetrated by computers owned and operated by individuals in the Chinese government, although none claim that any secret or private information was accessed. Chinese officials vehemently deny any involvement in the cyber attacks. Coincidentally, or perhaps not so coincidentally, this week China reported that its own computer systems were assaulted over the Internet and suffered "massive" and "shocking" losses of state and military secrets. Whether China's complaints are true or a fabrication intended to deflect criticism over recent accusations, one thing is clear: the Internet has become a powerful tool in international affairs, governmental relations, and the struggle for global dominance. All world powers recognize the valuable information that can be obtained legally or illegally over global Internet connections. And all world powers realize the dangers of having the Internet infrastructure, and their own information systems, compromised and threatened by a hostile force.
Source: Chinese government at the center of five cyber attack claims (Ars Technica)
Story 2- Botnet Armies Attack
The raging "Storm Worm" has been getting a lot of attention in the media lately due to its immense size and potential destructive capabilities. Last week I reported that millions of computers have been infected by the storm worm and are working as part of a huge botnet army that is more powerful than the world’s largest supercomputer. Computers infected with the Storm Worm show no outward sign of being infected but are being controlled remotely to distribute spam and launch attacks against Internet targets. This week, it was discovered that innocent Web sites are being hacked and recruited to spread the worm. Matt Sergeant, chief anti-spam technologist with MessageLabs, believes that the Storm worm botnet army could be 50 million computers in size. He has witnessed spikes in Internet traffic up ten times the norm indicating that the Storm Worm owner is experimenting with the power of the botnet army. "They can turn on the taps whenever they want to," stated Matt Sergeant.
A group called the Zhelatin gang is believed to be behind the Storm Worm. The Anti spam group SpamNation believes that the hacker group rents out the botnet for profit. While Zhelatin gang clients typically rent the Storm Worm botnet to mass distribute Spam, recently the botnet has been rented out to take down antispam community service sites.
The power of botnet armies received international attention back in May when it was used to bring down the network infrastructure of the country of Estonia. Tensions between Estonia and Russia had been high, and when Estonia decided to move a Soviet-era war monument, riots ensued and transitioned from the physical world to the virtual world. A botnet army was used to attack Estonian government agencies to the point that the government had to pull the plug on their networks. Estonia blames the Russian government for the attack, but in reality, since such attacks are distributed over many infected PCs around the world, it is difficult to trace them to one source. Such attacks are referred to as distributed denial of service or DDoS attacks. They use multiple PCs to generate massive amounts of network traffic directed at specific Internet servers.
The botnet army that brought down the Estonian government's network was a fraction of the size of the Storm Worm army. Many are concerned, and rightfully so, about what the designers have in mind for this gigantic botnet army. In the mean time, you can do your part to reduce the size of the Storm Worm, by updating your virus and spamware protection, and scanning your system.
Sources: Botnet attack targeting eBay and its users, compromising accounts (Ars Technica), Storm worm botnet more powerful than top supercomputers (iTnews.com.au), Hacked GOP site infects visitors with notorious bot-making malware (Computerworld), Massive DDoS attacks target Estonia; Russia accused (Ars Technica)
Story 3 - Ads on Your Cell Phone
Ready for spam on your cell phone? Many of us are already getting it in small quantities. Marketing experts are forecasting a sharp rise over the next year through several technologies. Advertisers are experimenting with Bluetooth delivered ads. Bluetooth is the short range wireless technology that allows cell phones to communicate with earbuds and other devices. Businesses can place Bluetooth transmitters in billboards, bus stop benches, in storefronts, and other public places to beam ads to your phone. For example, you might walk by a Starbucks, and get a text message coupon for a buy-one-get-one free latte. Or as you pass a movie theatre, you may get a request to accept a file containing a movie trailer video.
Another force that will push ads onto our handsets sooner rather than later are the big Internet marketing companies. Google, Microsoft, and others are racing to be the first to develop a platform that provides advertising and marketing to cell phone applications. These companies are investing millions in cell phone technologies and strategies to provide cell phone users with useful services that are paid for by corporate sponsored advertisements.
Source: Get ready for ads on your cell phone (Reuters), Could This Be the Year for Mobile Ads? (ClickZ)
New Briefs
That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at www.course.com/coursecasts. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!