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back to article We take bots down, but they get up again – you're never going to keep them down

A combined attack on one of the world's biggest networks of infected PCs has been partially successful: analysis from Dell SecureWorks shows you can't keep a bad botnet down. In 2013 infosec bods and the feds together disrupted the ZeroAccess network, which used a remotely controlled collection of more than two million slaved …

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  1. Crazy Operations Guy

    When will the NSA do their damn jobs?

    The NSA was set up to protect the United State's infrastructure from foreigners, so why do we still see millions of infected systems reporting to foreign countries? They have the funding and skillset to stop such things, which are a far bigger threat to our economy and safety than terrorists ever were... SO why aren't they even lifting a finger to stop it?

    7 0 Reply
    1. king of foo
      Reply Icon

      Re: When will the NSA do their damn jobs?

      They're too busy re-watching those cat videos you watched on YouTube 8 years ago and reading all your spam from 2012 in case it mentions tourism to focus on anything else. Then they have to do a load of paperwork so it looks like they had genuine cause to suspect you of tourism.

      So obsessed are they by tourism that I even saw a "honeypot" advert on tv here in the UK the other day. You guys are so desperate to catch tourists you've started advertising California as a tourism hotspot. They even dragged Conan the barbarian out of retirement to do a cheesy grin and recommend travelling by "choppa".

      So, arguably, by targeting tourists the NSA are protecting your economy from foreigners spending all their money holidaying in Europe, but if all your resorts are like "Gitmo" then I don't think you'll get many repeat visitors...

      5 0 Reply
      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: When will the NSA do their damn jobs?

        'I even saw a "honeypot" advert on tv here in the UK the other day'

        You watch adverts?

        0 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: When will the NSA do their damn jobs?

        Man, that was funny, new screen and keyboard please.

        1 0 Reply
    2. RobbinMcDobbin
      Reply Icon

      Re: When will the NSA do their damn jobs?

      I believe that I am one of the targets.

      http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor/terrorists-are-w-obsessed-with-porn-says-boris-johnson-as-he-takes-aim-at-religious-extremists-10012523.html

      My love of porn has no relation to my political opinion / beliefs.

      0 0 Reply
    3. Tom Samplonius
      Reply Icon

      Re: When will the NSA do their damn jobs?

      "The NSA was set up to protect the United State's infrastructure..."

      No, it wasn't. The NSA is a signals intelligence (SIGINT) agency only. They have a secondary mission to protect communication of the US gov't only.

      And besides, we already know what the real cause of this is: millions of partially patched Windows workstations. MS has been doing more to take out these botnet networks, but they haven't done enough yet.

      0 0 Reply
  2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Mission Blindness Extraordinarily Renders the Enemy Without

    The NSA was set up to protect the United State's infrastructure from foreigners, so why do we still see millions of infected systems reporting to foreign countries? They have the funding and skillset to stop such things, which are a far bigger threat to our economy and safety than terrorists ever were... SO why aren't they even lifting a finger to stop it .... Crazy Operations Guy

    If one considers the Davos Crowd Cloud to be a big global networking malware infected bot lot, and some who are more than just a few chosen can and do and proact accordingly, COG, then can it explain the NSA and Director of National Intelligence and USCYBERCOM serial failings in the Great Game with ITs Bigger Beta Pictures and Greater IntelAIgent Games Plays with Private Sector Renegade and Pirate Vector Rogue Non-State Actors in Practically Remote Anonymous Active Autonomous Virtual Command and Control.

    3 1 Reply
    1. Elmer Phud
      Reply Icon

      Re: Mission Blindness Extraordinarily Renders the Enemy Without

      The Davos mob have been too busy discussing how to deal with Climate Change and if this is the last time they will get away with arriving using 1700 private planes.

      They have minions to keep thier own Very Private Network up and running.

      It'd be interesting to see thier downloads.

      0 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mission Blindness Extraordinarily Renders the Enemy Without

      Unfortunately, the Davos crowd just don't get it. If they take down the botnets, their more money left in the sheeples^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpeoples pockets to pick and stuff into their own! Aw but what has enlightened self-interest ever got them.

      1 0 Reply
    3. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Mission Blindness Extraordinarily Renders the Enemy Without

      And do you think that 77 Brigade will be targeting the Davos Crowd Cloud and doing all that is necessary to ensure that it does as it should according to wishes of the 99.99%? Or would that too smart for them and ministries purporting and promising obscure defence and cyber attack platforms, which sounds far too much like AI and NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT to be denied and pimped as being something else and quite different.

      0 1 Reply
  3. Jim 59

    Bots have become a constant background drone on the internet. My internet server sees a few hundred password guesses per day, ramping up to tens of thousands in a few days when a bot decides to get serious and do a proper dictionary attack. When the guesses exceed a certain rate it even affect CPU resource, so I moved some scripts around and now they get 404 instead. Sending a 404 is quicker than authenticating a wrong password.

    3 0 Reply
  4. L05ER

    maybe they should try a whiskey drink

    didn't read the article, only here to the applaud you for the chumbawamba reference.

    1 0 Reply

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