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