White Papers for Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC)

Taxonomy of Botnet Threats

Trend Micro

The primary motivation for computer hacking has shifted away from vandalism and recognition in the hacker community to one of financial gains via malicious attacks and intrusions. The increasing sophistication of Internet attacks identified today increasingly aim to exploit individuals and organizations for profit, often resulting in huge financial losses as well as business disruptions around the world. A recent study conducted by the FBI in 2006 shows that it costs U.S. businesses $67.2 billion per year to deal with viruses, spyware, computer theft and other computer-related crimes.One of the biggest threats to the Internet is the presence of large pools of compromised computers, also known as botnets, or zombie (drone) armies, sitting in homes, schools, businesses and governments around the world. Under the control of a single (or a small group of hacker, commonly known as a botmaster, botnets are often used to conduct various attacks, ranging from Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks to e-mail spamming, keylogging, click fraud, and spreading new malware. Unlike other types of attacks, botnets which may be comprised of thousands of compromised hosts can assemble a tremendous amount of aggregate computing power and can perform a variety of attacks against a wide range of targets.

View the White Paper

Share or bookmarklet this web page at: