Network Security News

Botnets proliferate, making DDoS attacks cheaper

Friday, October 16, 2009

Network security researchers tracking online criminal activity say the underground marketplace for networks of hacked computers - botnets - has become so crowded in recent years that renting a botnet to launch attacks is becoming cheaper.

Botnets, which can be used by bot-herders to send out waves of spam and malware and to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to take down websites and servers, are traded and rented out to attackers as a kind of black market software-as-a-service.

But as more PCs become infected by proliferating worms and Trojan malware, the price to rent a botnet is becoming progressively cheaper, according to Jose Nazario, security researcher for Arbor Networks.

"The barriers to entry in that marketplace are so low you have people basically flooding the market," Nazario said, according to Computerworld. "The way you differentiate yourself is on price."

Security researchers at Finjan previously discovered a trading platform called Golden Cash that sells batches of 1,000 infected PCs - an infected PC is called a "zombie" or bot - for as liuttle as $25 to $500.

Researchers said not all of the botnet rentals are equally dangerous, so low-end attackers may not be getting much for their money.