RISE IN INFECTIONS:

RISE IN INFECTIONS:

                        Between 2011 and 2012 rise in BOT infections was 280%. 280mn. Spam messages per day are sent globally from India.

                               

 

280%                                      17%                                15%

                   2011 – 2012                       Spam Zombies                of Global BOT- net spam

BAD BOTS:   includes  (a)  Spammers  (b)  Hacking Tools  (c)  Impersonators  (d)  Scrapers (may also be good one)

DAMAGE:     Data Theft, Malware Injection and Distribution, Website/server hijacking, Website defacement and content deletion.

TARGET:      Anyone, most commonly travel industry websites, classifieds, news sites, e-stores and forums.

MAJOR BOT INFECTED CITIES IN INDIA:                                                                                                                                       

Chandigarh, Ghaziabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Surat, Kolkata, Bhuvaneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Mysore, Cochin.

KNOW YOUR BOTS:

                Not all BOTs are used with a negative intent. Some help in Research and Monitoring.

THE MALICIOUS BOT:

                BOTs can be effectively used to impersonate and to hack accounts leading to financial losses and Intellectual Property Theft. “Theft of personal details; username and password to operate one’s bank account is a classic example of how BOTs can lead to financial loses.

                “It is an organised Cyber-Crime,” explains Mukesh Saini, Commander (Rtd.) and former National Security Co-ordinator Govt. of India. In May 2013 cyber criminals broke into the Mumbai based account of the RPG group and siphoned off approximately Rs. 2.4 crores. Later 3 people were arrested in this case.

NHTs increasing rate is alarming. Any computer connected to the internet is vulnerable to such attacks. The user will not get to know about it unless he or she has installed an internet security application. Besides BOTs, computers also generate other kinds of secondary activities while the user is surfing the internet. This activity remains in background and is never seen by the user, unlike the BOT generated pop-ups. For example, your computer might be used as a channel to reach a server with the intention of hacking it; and you will never know.

THE GOOD BOTS:

                Not all NHT are bad though. In fact good BOTs such as Scrapers can effectively use to conduct research. Good BOTs are also used by search engines to track content on websites and enhance their search results. Search BOTs and other good BOTs formed 31% of total BOTs.

continued............../Ref.: Hindustan Times, 5th January 2014