Thursday, March 17, 2011

Some cyber privateers did their homework?

Posted from the illustrious Mr. Krebs' site, it appears that the command and control of the world's largest botnet (computers infected to send out SPAM for everything from male enhancement to fake drugs) has been taken out by persons or organization unknown. I'd like to think it was a White Hat cyber privateer who has done his homework, although I would grudgingly applaud a government organization who has papered up a get-out-of-jail-free card (ie; a presidential "finding" on which it acted) to do the deed. Since I don't know the answers, there is a third scenario that could be afoot. Namely, a criminal organization is holding the botnet for ransom. Mr. Krebs' article indicates there are approximately 815,000 Windows computers currently infected with the botnet virus, which still exists on them. However they have no command-and-control connection and have therefore gone dormant.

My preference would be for "door number one" to be the culprit: a lone cyber privateer who did this for altruistic reasons. In which case I would personally contribute to his legal defense fund, should the need arise. As well as lobby for a retroactive Letter of Marque and Reprisal from a grateful government.

Kudos, door number one!

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Implementation suggestions for THE MORGAN DOCTRINE are most welcome. What are the "Got'chas!"? What questions would some future Cyber Privateering Czar have to answer about this in a Senate confirmation hearing?