Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:43:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: Gadi Evron <ge@linuxbox.org.>
To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com
Subject: reviving the botnets@ mailing list: a new statregy in fighting cyber
crime
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.62.0808280732440.13815@linuxbox.org.>
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The public botnets@ mailing list, where malicious activity on the Internet
can be openly shared, has been revived, and boy is it active.
Warning: live samples and malicious URLs are openly shared there.
Mailing list URL:
http://www.whitestar.linuxbox.org/mailman/listinfo/botnets
Reasons, thinking and explanations:
http://gadievron.blogspot.com/2008/08/public-sharing-and-new-statregy-in.html
Excerpt:
------
A couple of years ago I started a mailing list where folks not necessarily
involved with the vetted, trusted, closed and snobbish circles of cyber
crime fighting (some founded by me) could share information and be
informed of threats.
In this post I explore some of the history behind information sharing
online, and explain the concept behind the botnets mailing list. Feel free
to skip ahead if you find the history boring. Also, do note the history in
this post is mixed with my own opinions. As I am one of the only people
who where there in the beginning though and lived through all of it, I
feel free to do so (in my own blog post).
As I conclude, we may not be able to always share our resources, but it is
time to change the tide of the cyber crime war, and strategize. One of the
strategies we need to use, or at least try, is public information sharing
of "lesser evils" already in the public domain.
..
..
To fight a war, you have to be involved and engaged. On the Internet that
is very difficult, but the Russians found a way. It is a fact that while
we made much progress in our efforts fighting cyber crime, we had nearly
no effect what-so-ever on the criminals and the attackers. Non. They
maintain their business and we play at writing analysis and whack-a-mole.
Using the botnets mailing list, I am burrowing a page from the apparent
Russian cyber war doctrine, getting people involved, engaged. Personally
aware and a part of what's going on.
It can't hurt us, and perhaps now, four years over-due and two years after
the previous attempt, we may be ready to give it a go and test the
concept.
-------
Gadi Evron.
--
"You don't need your firewalls! Gadi is Israel's firewall."
-- Itzik (Isaac) Cohen, "Computers czar", Senior Deputy to the Accountant General,
Israel's Ministry of Finance, at the government's CIO conference, 2005.
(after two very funny self-deprication quotes, time to even things up!)
My profile and resume:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gadievron
