Link #1: http://hothardware.com/News/Malnets-Were-the-Cause-of-Most-CyberAttacks-in-2012/
Link #2: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/03/malnets/
The world of malware has a new king. Malnets, a malware attack strategy that emerged in 2011, have been given the dubious distinction by Blue Coat as the leading cause of cyber attacks in 2012. Malnets are networks of malware that provide a robust and easily adapted platform for carrying out series of organized attacks. According to the article Zombie-animating malnets increase 200% in just 6 months, "Blue Coat expect malnets to account for more than two-thirds of all malicious cyber attacks in 2012. The firm is currently tracking more than 1,500 unique malnets, a 200 per cent (four-fold) increase from just six months ago." This is an alarming statistics and it must mean that criminals are having huge amounts of success with this type of attack. Malnets make use of thousands of servers and spread themselves out across the web. Their command and control structure is also constantly changing. This makes detection and discovery of the entire network a daunting task for security firms and law enforcement.
According to Blue Coat, a "negative day defense" is the best approach to bringing down these expansive pieces of malicious software. Because of the way the malnet network is set up, taking down a single system, or even a few nodes, will not do much to slow down the malnet's progress. The software will simply replace the closed down pieces with a new one. The "negative day defense" strategy involves blocking the malnets before they launch. Blue Coat describes this process: "Blue Coat Security Labs maps the relationships between malnet components to identify and block new subnets, IP addresses and host names when they come online. Once the malnet infrastructure has been identified, it can be blocked at the source before attacks are launched."
Here is a graphic describing the top five malnets as identified by Blue Coat. This image is courtesy of Blue Coat and taken from Paul Lilly's article “Malnets” Were the Cause of Most Cyber-Attacks in 2012. For a more detailed description of these and a few other big malnets to watch out for check out the John Leyden article Zombie-animating malnets increase 200% in just 6 months from the Register.com.
Link #2: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/03/malnets/
The world of malware has a new king. Malnets, a malware attack strategy that emerged in 2011, have been given the dubious distinction by Blue Coat as the leading cause of cyber attacks in 2012. Malnets are networks of malware that provide a robust and easily adapted platform for carrying out series of organized attacks. According to the article Zombie-animating malnets increase 200% in just 6 months, "Blue Coat expect malnets to account for more than two-thirds of all malicious cyber attacks in 2012. The firm is currently tracking more than 1,500 unique malnets, a 200 per cent (four-fold) increase from just six months ago." This is an alarming statistics and it must mean that criminals are having huge amounts of success with this type of attack. Malnets make use of thousands of servers and spread themselves out across the web. Their command and control structure is also constantly changing. This makes detection and discovery of the entire network a daunting task for security firms and law enforcement.
According to Blue Coat, a "negative day defense" is the best approach to bringing down these expansive pieces of malicious software. Because of the way the malnet network is set up, taking down a single system, or even a few nodes, will not do much to slow down the malnet's progress. The software will simply replace the closed down pieces with a new one. The "negative day defense" strategy involves blocking the malnets before they launch. Blue Coat describes this process: "Blue Coat Security Labs maps the relationships between malnet components to identify and block new subnets, IP addresses and host names when they come online. Once the malnet infrastructure has been identified, it can be blocked at the source before attacks are launched."
Here is a graphic describing the top five malnets as identified by Blue Coat. This image is courtesy of Blue Coat and taken from Paul Lilly's article “Malnets” Were the Cause of Most Cyber-Attacks in 2012. For a more detailed description of these and a few other big malnets to watch out for check out the John Leyden article Zombie-animating malnets increase 200% in just 6 months from the Register.com.
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