Conficker's 6m strong botnet confounds security probes
The unknown crooks behind the infamous Conficker worm may be quietly selling off parts of the huge botnet established by the malware, but virus fighters have no way of knowing because the cryptographic defences of its command and control network have proved uncrackable. Conficker (aka Downadup) first appeared in November 2008, …
If I were a sentient AI, this is probably one of the initial ways I would go about staying alive.
"Rodney Joffe, a senior technologist at net infrastructure firm Neustar, dismisses the theory that Conficker was a failed experiment or "research project" by cybercrooks, perhaps one that was too successful to be useful. In particular he's dismissive of the idea that the botnet remains dormant because activating it would provoke unwelcome law enforcement attention."
And what is the probability of Conficker being an ongoing deepening experiment and classified research project for Sublime Command and Control of Global Operating Devices and Communicating Computers?
Conficker works well beyond provocative unwelcome law enforcement attention's reach, methinks, although they themselves would be easily reached and breached with an swarming infestation/rabid rush of unusual activity/irregular and unconventional trade and exchange in their communications networks.
Which would all suggest Conficker be AI Governmental Spyware ....... BetaTesting Quantum Communications Protocols.
Heap Powerful Medicine for Wizards and Witches, Satyrs and Nymphs, Great and Good Saints and Sinners.
I hope the Reg will warn us if Conficker suddenly changes its name to "Skynet"
Mine now has a copy of "How to Survive a Robot uprising" in the inner pocket.
" Mine now has a copy of "How to Survive a Robot uprising" in the inner pocket." ..... Ian Emery
Posted Thursday 5th August 2010 17:40 GMT
To be properly prepared you'll also be needing "How to Survive a Root Server Robot Revolution" , Ian Emery.
"Are you sure you don't mean "damp squid"? :)" .... Craig Foster Posted Thursday 5th August 2010 23:04 GMT
What do you give a man who has everything and an octopus to play with? Stealthy Virile Code and Dodgy Binary Keys for Remote Kernel Control of Classified Information and Future SMART Intelligence. Or is that Created In-house and On Board with Computers Communicating and thus a Gift of One's Own Making for the Sharing and the Taking.
Which would quite a powerful lead-in teaser for a Vulcan Production dealing Virtual InSanity and Virgin Madness ..... for Multiple Orders of Dynamic Organised Chaos. .....
Which is for some just a Job to Plug into for Input to Output.
A squib is an explosive charge. One use is for faking bullet hits in TV & Film, you know, when someone's shirt explodes with bullet holes, that was a set of squibs.
There's no problem with a damp squid. That's the way they're supposed to be.
A squib, however, is a small firework (or explosive) which you have to keep dry. If you don't, it's a real anticlimax. It goes off like a damp squib.
...on a pedal stool.
Squids are always damp. What you mean is a damp squab, which is a small wet pigeon.
And while we puzzle about it, what about the thought that it might be the reason Obama has awarded himself an "Internet Kill Switch"? And the corollary that it might be a covert black ops system?
TheReg reported that a USGOV contractor is taking over botnets and exploits them for intel gathering. The next step would be to actively create botnets, if the existing ones are no longer sufficient.
It's that weird Section 6 AI they made, get ready for the thing to come alive!
..use facebook, myspace, wired.com, youtube and all the other sites that allow for unmoderated comments to perform command and control ?
That would take away the need to set up domains and the consequential C&C vulnerability.
The messages would be gpg-signed commands, obfuscated through some sort of steganography.
Apparently the only defence against this is to create an AI called Skynet that will help eradicate the botnet, although I don't know how successful that was in the film as I fell asleep ;)
I'm with you Craig on that one... but please don't put me on a pedalstool.
...welcome our Conficker Bonet Overloads - it's Our Density
gummint malware, pity they dont have algorhythms that people can dance to.
I'd love to DJ IT!
At least Conficker is nice and gives some serious clues to the tech savvy that it is there...
Network traffic goes through the roof and windows update disabled... Hmmmm... Might notice that!
Personally I'm more worried about one that doesn't disable windows update, which spreads quietly without flooding the network, and has so far gone unnoticed!
to tivo or not to tivo adsl is the quetion not to mention bpl of course im slighty paranoid
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