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Arming consumers against PC hijackers
Symantec recently released Norton AntiBot, a targeted security solution to combat the growing botnet pandemic. A real-time bot detection and removal solution for consumers, Norton AntiBot monitors PC applications and processes around-the-clock, offering an additional layer of protection that complements existing security solutions to protect PCs from unauthorised unauthorised access and tampering.
“Consumers need to know that they may be directly implicated in the criminal activities being perpetrated by botnets – if not by having their own identity or personal information stolen, then by being part of a network of zombie PCs carrying out large scale criminal activities like massive spam distribution and phishing email schemes,” says Premlan Padayachi, Africa consumer country manager, Symantec.
“We're estimating millions upon millions of bot-infected PCs in existence today, with the vast majority of these users having no idea of what's going on behind the scenes of their own computer.”
Number continues to rise
Symantec Security Response is seeing the number of bot-infected computers continues to rise. In Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report (Volume XI, March 2007) Symantec found that during the last six months of 2006, there were more than six million active bots which is approximately 30% more zombie computers than observed in the previous six-month period.
Unlike yesterday's viruses and worms, today's bots are stealth and dynamic, secretly installing on systems and turning them into “zombies.” Once installed, bots can execute new commands sent by a bot master on an ongoing basis. If they are not properly removed, they can reinstall themselves, making them particularly difficult to destroy.
Consumers can reduce their exposure to bot-related attacks by deploying multiple layers of protection technologies, including intrusion prevention, signature-based detection and behaviour-based detection. By using complementary technologies, users have the most effective protection against known and unknown forms of malware, including bots.
Norton AntiBot uses active behaviour-based heuristic detection system that is always on. This technology constantly analyses the behaviour of files and applications to ensure that otherwise invisible malware is tracked and eradicated as soon as it exhibits harmful behaviour. As a result, Norton AntiBot is a complementary solution to existing antivirus or security suites, including Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, and Norton 360.
