Botnet Hunters in Closed-Doors Redmond Summit

Faced with arguably its biggest security crisis since the 2003 network worm attacks, Microsoft is throwing its support behind a high-level powwow to discuss the escalating threat from zombie botnets and zero-day malware attacks.

The software maker is rolling out the red carpet for the world’s top security research professionals attending a closed-doors workshop at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters on Jan. 25 and 26.

The summit is being called to brainstorm the growing sophistication of botmaster operational tactics and the use of vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits in the wild.

The invite-only attendees, drawn from the biggest names in the anti-virus and Internet security space, will spend the two days talking about the advancements in spyware and phishing gangs that use botnets for online crime.

A botnet is a collection of broadband-enabled PCs, hijacked during virus and worm attacks and seeded with software that connects back to a server to receive communications from a remote attacker. In 2005 and 2006, the botnet threat exploded on the Windows platform as users struggled to deal with clever social engineering attacks.

According to statistics from Symantec, in Cupertino, Calif., an average of 57,000 active bots (individual compromised machines) was observed per day over the first six months of 2006. The botnets, which are easy to create and maintain, serve as the key hub for well-organized crime rings around the globe, using stolen bandwidth to make money from spam, spyware installations and identity theft attacks.

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