Malware Overwhelming Traditional Network Security
Networks of malware-infected "robot" machines are the underlying infrastructure enabling an epidemic of Internet cybercrime.
"...the accelerated use of the Internet has also enabled a dramatic rise in criminal activity that exploits this inter- connectivity for illicit financial gain and other malicious purposes," according to the US GAO
Traditional security such as desktop antivirus or network intrusion prevention have been rendered essentially useless against the multi-vector, polymorphic malware threat. By utilizing zero-day vulnerabilities, social engineering, and targeted attacks, bot herders are aggressively using malware to grow their bot networks.
- Zero day attacks enable botnets to exploit vulnerabilities before patches or signatures are available. Bots can proliferate undetected by traditional network security or intrusion prevention products.
- Targeted attacks are designed specifically to evade network and desktop security using polymorphic variants to bypass signature pattern matching and infiltrating slowly, but steadily, thereby dodging anomaly detection techniques.
- Social engineering attacks manipulate users into installing malicious software bypassing desktop & network security protections.
This exposes enterprises to major liability and financial losses. Botnets are among the most destructive and expensive threats facing today's enterprises.
