Bot activity slowed down by Christmas
On Christmas day, the number of bots being tracked by the Shadowserver group dropped nearly 20 percent. The Internet Storm Center (ISC), a threat monitoring group managed by the SANS Institute, confirmed a drop of about 10 percent.
So what happened? Did the bots all go on Christmas vacation?
According to one of the ISC’s network monitoring volunteers, the drop in bot activity could be due to the large number of brand-new computers given as gifts this Christmas.
Computers running Windows XP will most likely be using Service Pack 2, which also means the firewall will be on by default, making it even harder for the bots to regain a foothold.
While this is certainly good news, most experts don’t expect it to last. “Many of the infected machines are turned off, the new shiny ones have not been infected, and the Internet is momentarily a safer place,” Marcus Sachs, director of the ISC, stated in an entry in the ISC online diary. “But like you said, give it a few weeks and we’ll be right back to where we started from.”
Via Security Focus
On Christmas day, the number of bots being tracked by the Shadowserver group dropped nearly 20 percent. The Internet Storm Center (ISC), a threat monitoring group managed by the SANS Institute, confirmed a drop of about 10 percent.
So what happened? Did the bots all go on Christmas vacation?
According to one of the ISC’s network monitoring volunteers, the drop in bot activity could be due to the large number of brand-new computers given as gifts this Christmas.
Computers running Windows XP will most likely be using Service Pack 2, which also means the firewall will be on by default, making it even harder for the bots to regain a foothold.
While this is certainly good news, most experts don’t expect it to last. “Many of the infected machines are turned off, the new shiny ones have not been infected, and the Internet is momentarily a safer place,” Marcus Sachs, director of the ISC, stated in an entry in the ISC online diary. “But like you said, give it a few weeks and we’ll be right back to where we started from.”
Via Security Focus