I know this message board is for questions ... but I thought ... or I hope this ... information ... post ... will be of interest to the BOINC community

A telescope that sets its sights on cyber-crime

New Scientist Tech, Feb. 4, 2010

Botnets - networks of compromised computers that are controlled by someone with malicious intent - are an increasingly common feature of the internet. They can be used to flood a target website with useless data to bring it down, launch spam, or spy on computer users by looking for their banking logins and passwords.

To combat this threat, Endgame Systems of Atlanta, Georgia, has come up with a system, called the internet telescope, that can map the physical location of computers infected with the malicious software, or malware, used to run botnets. It can even identify the type of malware on the machine and pre-empt its next moves.

Cyber-criminals use the internet to plant malicious code on computers that lack up-to-date security patches. Thousands of such machines, known as bots, can then be controlled by the botnet operator without the owner realising their computer has been recruited into a botnet. Endgame passively tracks these compromised PCs from the botnet traffic they disgorge, geotagging the data to create a global threat map.

It then dissects the malware to work out the web addresses of the next few domain name servers each bot is programmed to seek instructions from once the current control domain expires - a trick they play to evade detection. Once these domains are known, Endgame buys them up before the person controlling the botnet, or "botmaster", does, ensuring that it seizes control of the entire botnet when it switches to its new control address .....

read more here:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527465.500-a-telescope-that-sets-its-sights-on-cybercrime.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527465.500-a-telescope-that-sets-its-sights-on-cybercrime.html

I like the following post ... which was written by Rob Neff (N7ORY) ... and express my feelings about BOINC

RE BOINC:

Developers; Volunteer or otherwise:

Just showing a little love from an avid user that appreciates your work and all the time you spend doing it.You take a lot of things on the cheek and most of it not rightly so.

You're all very sharp and knowledgeable folks that make this project the best to work for.

In the grand scheme of things, the little problems will be squashed, the big ones will be contained, and all others dealt with appropriately enough.
Knowng perhaps some users might still find fault, but no one can keep everybody happy all the time.

We have faith and confidence in what you all do for us. So here's to a great job so far, and here's to some friendly encouragement and a pat on the back
to ... keep up the good fight ... to make BOINC ... the Best software in the world.

Good Job guys/gals! We appreciate your hard fought efforts. They don't go unnoticed.

Rob Neff (N7ORY)

thank you to: David A., Rom, Charlie Fenton, Eric Myers, Richard Haselgrove, Sekerob, Gundolf Jahn, Les Bayliss, Claggy, Ageless, KSMarksPsych ... and many, many, more ... people whose names I can't think of right now...

thank you every one!

I have learned so much about BOINC ... just from reading this message board ... and the links it provides ... every day for the last five years ...

I love BOINC ... because it's like ... a little Minni operating system

Byron
:-)