Botnets

I was reading an article on Slashdot about botnets the other day, specifically on the Storm botnet. To those of you who don’t know what a botnet is

a jargon term for a collection of software robots, or bots, which run autonomously and automatically. They run on groups of zombie computers controlled remotely.

I was surprised to discover that this incredible phenomenon has been around for quite a while, and from what I understand, isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. Which led to me reading up even more about the issue, so I downloaded an e-book on the topic: Botnets, the Killer Web App.

The book is very interesting, yet apparently doesn’t target those new to network security issues from a technical perspective. I tried to stay in tune to all the technical security jargon used in the book, but they were just one too many googles for me.

Apparently the Storm botnet punishes all of those who attempt to dissect and/or shut it down, DDoS being its favorite method of attack. Now if we were talking about a botnet of a couple of hundred bots working together, it would be scary, yet possibly containable, but the botnet we’re talking about

The scariest thing about the topic is that the owners of the botnet are leasing parts of it to perform certain malicious and undesirable tasks for the leasers.

Modern botnets are being fielded that are organized like real armies, with divisions of zombies controlled by different bot servers

These botnets will hit a victim with the might of a virtual army that, in the case of the Storm botnet, could consist of more than 5 Million infected zombie computers.

Conclusion:We are helpless and there’s nothing to do to stop them, WE’RE DOOMED!?

Not really, the answer is somewhat in your hands:

1. Stop opening mysterious emails from unknown (and possibly known) sources no matter how intriguing.
2. Spread the word, people like me didn’t have the first clue things were getting this ugly so fast.

On the bus to Damascus

11:00AM

On the bus, its Sunday morning, the exhibit might be a contest for engineering projects, and we aren’t at all prepared, I hope the guy from PR is wrong.

1:00PM

Had a shawurma with cream of garlic, not the best choice for the road, thank god for chiclettes.

Haider is trying to install SQL Server 2005, but its requesting the Windows installer be updated, I think we’re screwed.

Lets make this blog about transportation in Syria, tips for the inexperienced:

1. Do your best to either catch the ‘Express Tours’ VIP bus, it comes with a small LCD, leather seats, and is reasonably more expensive, four hours on a bus shouldn’t be taken lightly.

2. Do not make eye contact with the hollaring dudes on either side of the Bus station sidewalk. If forced to respond to one, raise eyebrows without looking surprised, it means no.

3. If eye contact the hollaring dudes is unavoidable: Do not trust them, they all lie, and will sell their Momma’s to get you on their company’s bus.

4. When you arrive at the rest station, do not order anything that is not wrapped and sealed, avoid buying anything unnecessary, because everything is either  twice or more expensive than if you had gotten it from the city.

5. Don’t forget your walkmans and iPods, the trip movie is most likely an Egyptian version of some famous movie (arabic ofcourse). A book would do you well, but the iPod is to fade out the distraction.

6. We will have a special blog the next time I travel to sham about each company and the quality of their buses.

That was all I came up with on the bus…

thanx for dropping by.

Not spam, but not readable

I was looking at my inbox the other day, and I noticed I had like 600 or so unread emails from my mom, another 400 from one of my uncles, another within the same range from a AI group and so on.

Now I admit agreeing that most of the contents of those emails contain some interesting (yet most likely useless) trivia and/or news and articles. So I don’t have the heart to filter them out as spam, but they’re not at all within the range of emails a day I can actually read, so I have them distributed amongst appropriate folders as most of you also have done.

This on the other hand is like a constant reminder of how careless and insensitive I am, I mean, I once heard if someone took the time to send you a letter, you should at least have the courtesy to read it. I guess e-mails don’t apply.

By the way, I love the address+anything@gmail.com technique I read in Google: The Missing Manual, Second Edition, to filter out work related emails from the personal ones, and most ppl I work with have no idea about, so they apply as is, adding a couple of more characters to the address, but helping me sort out mail with the filters.

I finished Chap3 of Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML and CSS today, I think I might go straight to the CSS chapter tomorrow.

Now I might not blog for a couple of days since I will be at an IT Exhibit in Damascus, I’ll try to tweet through it if I have internet access, so you can Follow me at Twitter if your interested.

Thanx for stopping by,

Salam

Sick weekend

I’m sick today, I had a mild sore throat last night, but today, it turned into the real thing. I hope it goes away by Sunday, I have to be in Damascus.

I am starting with Chap3 of Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML and CSS, I know its not the most up-to-date book on the topic, but ever since I started reading it, which was about a week ago, I knew it was what I needed to really understand the Tags in XHTML 1.0 Transitional for the CIW Designers course I’m giving, and for me to master becoming a designer.

I forgot to mention that I picked up the title from an amazing blog entry by Vinh Le I recommend you guys check out if your interested in Web Design.

I know some of you would argue, why master design, and you should master being a developer first? which is what i originally started off with, beginning with my graduation project almost 10 months ago, and up until a project I recently accepted.

Yesterdays cool website was dezinerfolio.com, Rabie told me about it, I like the effect they used on the main navigation section.

If anyone feels like they spotted a cool site that slipped under mainstream website award competitions, let us know.

Thanx for passing by.

Salam

Hello World!

Welcome to my personal blog.

I have been meaning to start a blog ever since I made up my mind to buy a domain, but since things aren’t working out, I think I will start it here, and copy whatever entries I have here later on…

This blog will be about everything I find interesting, starting from Business administration in IT, web development and design, politics and local as well as international news. I hope anyone who reads it enjoys it as much as I enjoy writing it…which I hope I will :D.

Now regarding the Hello World! sentence I started my blog with, I read in a book once, I think it was Java: How to Program by Deitel and Deitel, that it was first mentioned in an internal memorandum at Bell Labs back in the 70’s.

To those of you who are non-programmers, the term ‘hello world’ is seen as a first example in most programming languages tutorials or books.

Thats all for tonight, thanx for dropping by

Salam