One of the uses of botnets that I find particularly interesting are Distributed Denial of Service(DDoS) attacks. I spend a fair amount of time tracking the various botnet related attacks that Shadowserver sees, especially when the list of victims is of fairly high profile. I've been watching a DDoS group that has been attacking a wide variety of victims in several different countries. This groups uses the BlackEnergy botnet to carry out its attacks.
Authorities in Europe have seized a nice video recorded by a group of carders showing the criminals installing a skimming device and hidden camera at an ATM in the United Kingdom to steal customer PINs. Filmed from the hidden pinhole camera itself, installed above the ATM, the video shows how easy it is to capture the PINs as customers enter them on the keypad. But a few wily customers, who are wise to the carders’ tricks, manage to thwart their scheme by shielding the keypad as they type in their number.
Microsoft Corp. is urging an overhaul of U.S. laws for electronic privacy to help new services such as cloud computing, a technology that may double sales in five years.
As more data are stored on remote servers and away from personal computers, a 1986 digital law needs to be updated to give consumers confidence their information is protected, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said yesterday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington.
