[svlug] botnets

[John Conover]

Robert Hajime Lanning writes:
> 
> <quote who="Daniel Gimpelevich">
> > On Mon, 08 Jan 2007 21:22:12 -0800, Chris Miller wrote:
> >>> You're missing the point.  If you don't have anything worth
> >>> stealing,
> >>> you can run Windows and still get away without getting hacked.
> >
> > If they haven't hacked you, how would they know you have nothing worth
> > stealing?
> 
> And who said they are hacking you to steal from you.  The purpose
> of taking over your Windows box is to you it's resource (bandwidth,
> IP, CPU...)

Browse around your cookie files and see what sort of stuff would be
interesting to an I-vandal. Not to mention that harvesting address
books and To:/From: parings would be of value-disclosing all the
private email addresses in your correspondences. Good way to get your
email address blacklisted by everybody you correspond with. 

But your right, the main purpose is to commandeer the machine's
resources. But the malware/spambot programs do search the machines for
interesting things.

	    John

BTW, There was a massive security breach in Israel last year where a
'bot was placed in secure machines, and sent out email to To:/From:
parings that coaxed confidential information out of unsuspecting
users using this technique.

-- 

John Conover, conover at rahul.net, http://www.johncon.com/