Secure Computing predicts new Botnet to outpace Storm
ConvergenceAsia staff
09/01/2008

Secure Computing, an enterprise gateway security company, has revealed that a new botnet, Nugache, has emerged and is expected to unseat Storm as the nastiest botnet on the planet. It uses encryption and random communications to thwart the efforts of signature-based defenses.

"In 2007, Storm represented one of the biggest threats on the Internet. As 2008 begins, Nugache awakens from its slumber boasting the very same technical aspects that allowed Storm to grow so rapidly and regularly evade popular defenses," said Paul Henry, Vice President of Technology Evangelism, Secure Computing.

Nugache utilises peer to peer communications without any command control server. This capability makes the normally detectable communications between the individual bots and their command control server undetectable and at the same time also provides a new level of resiliency for the botnet.

Nugache takes advantage of the weakness in today’s most popular defenses:

- Lack of anti-malware scanning.
- Reliance upon categories only in previous generation URL filters.
- Default allow policies for internal users providing unchecked access to the Internet.
- Lack of granular application controls.
- Reliance on signatures in a negative security model.

Henry added, "People need to realise that it took nearly two years for Storm to evolve to reach its current capabilities. With Nugache having adopted the clever technologies used by Storm, it is now poised to quickly become as big if not bigger of a threat."

For more information, visit www.securecomputing.com.

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