Featured Intelligence – Battling Botnets

What is a Botnet?
Botnets Today
The botnet world is divided between bot families that are closely controlled by individual groups of attackers and bot families that are produced by malware kits. These kits are collections of tools, sold and shared within the malware underground, that enable aspiring bot-herders to assemble their own botnet by creating and spreading customized malware variants. Several malware kits are freely available for downloading and sharing; some have been published as open source code, which enables malware developers to create modified versions of the kits. Other kits are developed by individual groups and sold like legitimate commercial software products, sometimes even including support agreements. For example, variants in the Win32/Zbot family are built from a commercial malware kit called Zeus; Win32/Pushbot bots are built from a kit called Reptile.The existence of botnet malware kits is one of the reasons why it is difficult for security researchers to estimate the number and size of botnets currently in operation. Detections of malware samples from a family like Zbot, for example, do not necessarily represent a single large botnet controlled by one individual or group, but instead may indicate an unknown number of unrelated botnets controlled by different people, some of which might encompass just a handful of controlled computers.

Bot operators use several tactics to attack organizations, companies, and individuals in an effort to achieve their goals. Botnets typically exhibit a variety of behaviors based on the purpose of the attacks and the tools used to establish them. Being aware of and understanding the different attacking mechanisms can help IT and security professionals gain a deeper understanding of the nature of the botnet, the purpose behind it, and sometimes even the origin of the attack.

Bots, like other kinds of malware, can be spread in a number of different ways. Three common ways that computers are successfully compromised involve the following tactics:

•Exploiting weak or non-existent security policies.
•Exploiting security vulnerabilities.
•Using social engineering tactics to manipulate people into installing malware.
Some bots are designed to spread using these techniques directly, as worms; security researchers analyze the behavior of these self-replicating bots to learn more about how they spread. Other bots don’t spread themselves directly, and are delivered by other malware families as payloads.

Many attackers and types of malware attempt to exploit weak or non-existent security policies. The most common examples of such exploits are attackers taking advantage of weak passwords and/or unprotected file shares. A threat that gains control of a user’s account credentials could perform all of the actions the user is allowed to perform, which could include accessing or modifying resources as a local or domain administrator.

Other types of malware attempt to exploit security vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to computer systems. This type of attack is more successful on older operating systems than on newer systems that are designed with security as a core requirement. An analysis of infections reported by the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) during the second quarter of 2010 (2Q10) reveals that infection rates for computers around the world are significantly lower on newer versions of the Windows operating system than on older versions.

Tips for everyday Office tasks

We know that Microsoft Office is your go-to program for getting everyday home and work tasks accomplished. That’s why, when we heard about the excellent features and improvements packed into Office 2010, we couldn’t wait to update our articles. Our articles now include advice on how to use many of the new features of Office 2010, along with instruction on how to find your favorite, tried-and-true Office tools.

Don’t worry! Our Office 2007 tips are still included—the articles are now packed with even more helpful tips and advice.

7 ways to organize your email

6 ways to ensure your email gets read

9 tips to manage your files better

12 tips for creating better documents

12 tips for creating better presentations

6 ways to streamline your tasks in Outlook

5 ways to collaborate successfully on a virtual team

4 ways to take control of your email Inbox

Save time with quick computer shortcuts

Create incredible documents more easily using Office 2010

5 good computing habits

Vacation checklist

Back up your data

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

The tool that I want to show you is the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is a really lightweight compatibility testing tool. It is most appropriate for use in small organizations, although it can be used in larger organizations if you want to get a general idea of the types of issues that might be uncovered during more comprehensive testing.
You can download the Windows 7 Upgrade advisor here. After downloading the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, you must install it onto the PCs that you are considering upgrading. You can perform the compatibility tests by simply clicking the Start Check button.

Apology!

I want to Apologise to everyone who reads the blog for not having it up to date.
I will do better.
David

Microsoft Small Business Center!

The Microsoft Small Business Center offers Products & Demos, Security & Support, Articles & Research.

Http://microsoft.com/smallbusiness/hub.mspx

Checkout the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite.

Microsoft Business Resource Center!

Because there is such an abundance of information on this site I am going to post the next link on Monday the 12th of April.
Again here isd the link for the resource center.

http://www.microsoft.com/business/mycenter/?qstr=CR_CC10033264&CR_ID=

Microsoft Business Resource Center!

In todays business world just about every company large or small uses computers. This site is free to join and offers everything from Self Help Resources to Training and Events.
Here is the link.
http://www.microsoft.com/business/mycenter/?qstr=CR_CC=100332641&CR ID=