02.26.10

Gemini version available ♊︎

Company That Made Botnets Pretends to Fight Botnets (Microsoft)

Posted in Google, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 1:59 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Photogram

Summary: King of the bots wants special credit, admiration and media worship for its futile struggles to eradicate the problem it created (one botnet at a time)

THOSE who have Silver Lie installed (i.e. users of proprietary operating systems) will be able to watch the latest shameless spin from Microsoft. 1 trillion (that’s 1,000,000,000,000) spam messages per week are said to be spewed from Windows botnets, but Microsoft claims that “hundreds of thousands of computers” running Windows are being addressed (there are hundreds of millions of zombie PCs running Windows) to eliminate just “1.5 billion spam emails per day”. So how much is that? Like 1% of all spam? Nessuno quotes the following portion from Microsoft’s latest propaganda:

Waledac is estimated to have infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world and, prior to this action, was believed to have the capacity to send over 1.5 billion spam emails per day. In a recent analysis, Microsoft found that between December 3-21, 2009, approximately 651 million spam emails attributable to Waledac were directed to Hotmail accounts alone, including offers and scams related to online pharmacies, imitation goods, jobs, penny stocks and more.

“The part I’m quoting,” writes Nessuno, “lies underneath the Silverlight advertisement. You can read it here without having to download Silverlight.”

Microsoft’s claims are almost hilarious; they try to be seen as though they are doing something. But it’s a losing battle which was lost because Microsoft was not interested in making its platform secure. Here is the MSBBC describing Microsoft as the good guy (using the above PR/propaganda) while neglecting to say that those are compromised Windows PCs that Microsoft’s own negligence is breeding [1, 2, 3].

Microsoft has won court approval to shut down a global network of computers which it says is responsible for more than 1.5bn spam messages every day.

A US judge granted the firm’s request to shut down 277 internet domains, which it said were used to “command and control” the so-called Waledac botnet.

There is some more coverage like this in the British press [1, 2, 3] [via], so the MSBBC is not alone here (there are Microsoft boosters too). The press across the Atlantic still writes about the huge damages caused by those Windows botnets (estimated perhaps at over a trillion dollars) and the remote possibility of creating new laws — as though laws will address the lawless and stop botnets — is still floating.

“The press across the Atlantic still writes about the huge damages caused by those Windows botnets (estimated perhaps at over a trillion dollars) and the remote possibility of creating new laws — as though laws will address the lawless and stop botnets — is still floating.”Intel finally says that it has come under Web attacks, possibly just like the Internet Explorer attacks on Google [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. It happened on the same month, but Intel kept quiet about it (many firms do because this is negative publicity).

Speaking of Intel, the Wintel press enthusiastically played along with Microsoft's pitch earlier this week when it wrongly claimed that Firefox had a zero-day flaw. Mozilla is formally denying such a claim.

Verisign is working hard to maintain DNS in the face of spoofing, but it also has Windows botnets knocking DNS servers off service sometimes [1, 2], which is equally annoying. We are hearing from readers whose DNS servers are frequently unavailable.

Verisign tries to secure DNS

[...]

At the core of DNSSEC is the ability to verify the answers given by DNS servers. This should, in theory, make it harder for spoofing and poisoning attacks. The digital signing of answers mean that like SSL certificates for websites, it can be checked to see whether the DNS query has produced the legitimate answer.

For those who are not in the mood for bad news, here is some new virus humour.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Reddit
  • email

Decor ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

Decor ✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

Decor ▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

4 Comments

  1. your_friend said,

    February 27, 2010 at 8:35 pm

    Gravatar

    Security researchers watching this botnet say there has been no real change in Waledac, so the free speech challenging court order has been useless. Researchers at SecureWorks note that Waledac is not usually a spammer in the first place and discount claims of reduced activity.

    Free speech advocates should be alarmed about this apparent grant of censorship that Microsoft has been given. To take down any site that has user feedback, all an attacker has to do is program botnets to spam the site and run to a federal judge for the order. This is a double insult to people who run IRC channels, forums and other community services, much like RIAA posting of their own material to file sharing networks.

    Roy Schestowitz Reply:

    USENET is already being criminalised.

  2. BrownieBoy said,

    March 2, 2010 at 4:52 am

    Gravatar

    Roy,

    I complained to the BBC about their failure to mention to mention Windows in the article that you quoted above.

    Today, I received their reply:

    “Thank you for your e-mail to the BBC News website.

    We did not state that the infected PCs were all Window’s machines, as we
    were unable to confirm that fact with Microsoft. In most cases, it is
    safe to assume that Windows machines make up the majority of a botnet.
    However, non Windows machines have been known to be used particularly in
    the command and control systems of botnets and therefore we could not
    categorically state that every machine ran Windows. ”

    Gotta love it! They wouldn’t say they were Windows because Microsoft hadn’t told them if they *could* say that!

    And what does “non Windows machines have been known to be used particularly in the command and control systems of botnets” supposed to mean? That the bad guy who controls the botnet might be using some Linux machines to pull the botnet’s strings? That hardly makes them part of the botnet, IMHO.

    Roy Schestowitz Reply:

    They often do. PayPal says so anyway, but it doesn’t make GNU/Linux the problem. It just means that people who know their way around computers choose a better platform.

DecorWhat Else is New


  1. Why Techrights Condones Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban and Suggests Extending Bans to Supposedly 'Good' Fentanyl

    We're going to write a lot more about why social control media/networks ought to be avoided and what can be done to eradicate this disease from civil society (it's not social; it's surveillance, propaganda and censorship)



  2. Mobile OS Market Share (as Judged by Web Access) More Than Double All Versions of Windows Combined

    With the share of Windows falling (the latest propaganda/talking point from Microsofters singles out Vista 11 to claim “growth”) it might not be long before Android and iOS alone have 3 times more in market share than Windows; Microsoft-sponsored media almost never points this out, nor does it mention that Bing fell below 3% globally (Bing also has many LAYOFFS), instead focusing on some “Bing” chatbot whose market share is negligible… and rapidly falling as people lose interest



  3. Links 02/04/2023: GNUnet 0.19.4 and Pine64/RISC-V SoC

    Links for the day



  4. Geminispace: Still Growing, Still Community-Controlled

    Almost 2.4k live (online) capsules are observed by Lupa right now (there are more, but Lupa cannot see them all), with just 31 more to go before this 2,400 milestone



  5. Microsoft Layoffs in the Buzzwords Department

    Microsoft hired or acquired (acquisition-based hiring, which enables faking growth, faking wealth when no actual money changes hands, and sometimes debt-loading) a lot of “trash” and “hype”; now it pays the price



  6. Links 01/04/2023: Bloomberg Places Stake in Free Software, Microsoft Banned and Slammed for Antitrust Abuses

    Good news



  7. Links 01/04/2023: Red Hat Turning 30

    Links for the day



  8. Links 31/03/2023: Mozilla Turns 25 and OpenMandriva 23.03

    Links for the day



  9. IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 31, 2023

    IRC logs for Friday, March 31, 2023



  10. Linus Tech (Illiteracy) Tips, LTT, Buys Phoronix Media

    Phoronix Media is being acquired by a larger company; the site will not change though



  11. Decided to Quit Debian and Use WSL Instead (Best of Both Worlds)

    Today starts a journey to a “better” experience, which lets Microsoft audit the kernel and leverage telemetry to improve my Debian experience



  12. Microsoft Has Laid Off Lennart Poettering and Hired Elon Musk

    Poettering gets rehired by IBM; IBM and Microsoft announce merger, putting Poettering back into his former position



  13. Links 31/03/2023: Ruby 3.2.2 and Linux Lite 6.4

    Links for the day



  14. Links 31/03/2023: Devices and Games, Mostly Leftovers

    Links for the day



  15. IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 30, 2023

    IRC logs for Thursday, March 30, 2023



  16. Links 31/03/2023: Ubuntu 23.04 Beta, Donald Trump Indicted, and Finland’s NATO Bid Progresses

    Links for the day



  17. Translating the Lies of António Campinos (EPO)

    António Campinos has read a lousy script full of holes and some of the more notorious EPO talking points; we respond below



  18. [Meme] Too Many Fake European Patents? So Start Fake European Courts for Patents.

    António Campinos, who sent EPO money to Belarus, insists that the EPO is doing well; nothing could be further from the truth and EPO corruption is actively threatening the EU (or its legitimacy)



  19. Thomas Magenheim-Hörmann in RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland About Declining Quality and Declining Validity of European Patents (for EPO and Illegal Kangaroo Courts)

    Companies are not celebrating the “production line” culture fostered by EPO management, which is neither qualified for the job nor wants to adhere to the law (it's intentionally inflating a bubble)



  20. Links 30/03/2023: HowTos and Political News

    Links for the day



  21. Links 30/03/2023: LibreOffice 7.5.2 and Linux 6.2.9

    Links for the day



  22. Links 30/03/2023: WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy” and OpenMandriva ROME 23.03

    Links for the day



  23. Sirius is Britain’s Most Respected and Best Established Open Source Business, According to Sirius Itself, So Why Defraud the Staff?

    Following today's part about the crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ another video seemed to be well overdue (those installments used to be daily); the video above explains to relevance to Techrights and how workers feel about being cheated by a company that presents itself as “Open Source” even to some of the highest and most prestigious public institutions in the UK



  24. IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 29, 2023

    IRC logs for Wednesday, March 29, 2023



  25. [Meme] Waiting for Standard Life to Deal With Pension Fraud

    The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ were concealed with the authoritative name of Standard Life, combined with official papers from Standard Life itself; why does Standard Life drag its heels when questioned about this matter since the start of this year?



  26. Former Staff of Sirius Open Source Responds to Revelations About the Company's Crimes

    Crimes committed by the company that I left months ago are coming to light; today we share some reactions from other former staff (without naming anybody)



  27. Among Users in the World's Largest Population, Microsoft is the 1%

    A sobering look at India shows that Microsoft lost control of the country (Windows slipped to 16% market share while GNU/Linux grew a lot; Bing is minuscule; Edge fell to 1.01% and now approaches “decimal point” territories)



  28. In One City Alone Microsoft Fired Almost 3,000 Workers This Year (We're Still in March)

    You can tell a company isn’t doing well when amid mass layoffs it pays endless money to the media — not to actual workers — in order for this media to go crazy over buzzwords, chaffbots, and other vapourware (as if the company is a market leader and has a future for shareholders to look forward to, even if claims are exaggerated and there’s no business model)



  29. Links 29/03/2023: InfluxDB FDW 2.0.0 and Erosion of Human Rights

    Links for the day



  30. Links 29/03/2023: Parted 3.5.28 and Blender 3.5

    Links for the day


RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

Recent Posts