Battling the bots - Updated

In medicine, once the symptoms are under control, a doctor will attempt to treat the cause of a person’s illness.

So it is in online security, with vendors Check Point releasing a new software module, or ‘blade’, targeting the source of most of the world’s malware and spam, bots.

Bots are malicious programs which spread themselves throughout computer networks without drawing attention to themselves. The networks, or botnets, can be controlled remotely by ‘bot herders’ to spread malware and spam or execute Denial of Service (DOS) attacks, all in a clandestine fashion, without the user’s knowledge.

Scott McKinnel, ANZ managing director for Check Point, says 88% of all spam is distributed through botnets.

"A lot of people may be aware of the symptoms but not the root cause,” McKinnel says.

"Over and above the malware perspective there’s the performance degradation.”

Bots also don’t discriminate their targets, McKinnel says, but spread themselves wherever they can.

"They’re not necessarily looking for financial institutes. If you’ve got a computer on the net, you’re susceptible.”

The most notable botnet discovered thus far is perhaps the Mariposa botnet, which was found in 2009 to have infected 12.7 million computers, with a presence in over half of the Fortune 1000 companies, and 40 major banks.

Check Point’s new anti-bot blade fights the botnets by scanning traffic for infection via the Check Point ThreatSpect bot detection engine, and blocking suspect communication to prevent an external party from taking control of the user’s machine.

McKinnel says with New Zealand’s high early adoption rate he foresees a quick uptake of the anti-bot blade.

"Because it is such a pronounced threat, there is a lot of awareness in the market, so we hope to see pretty rapid adoption.

"Decision making is easier in New Zealand because most companies haven’t got the scale. Having said that, people are well informed, so we have to make sure we’re on our game.”

Go here for more on Check Point’s anti-bot blade.

Update: Check Point is to introduce its new anti-bot blade at events in Auckland and Wellington, as part of the release of its upgraded appliance range.

The events will take place at Te Papa on October 31, and at the Langham Hotel on November 3. Both will run from 10:00 to 1:30, lunch included, and will be followed by partner-only sessions from 1:30 to 3:00.

Go here to register for the Wellington event, and here for Auckland.