Finally, anti “bot” technology is launched, and it’s from Norton

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Wednesday, 18 July 2007

Norton AntiBot, from Symantec, promises to protect you from bots and remove ones that are already on your computer, along with other malware – how soon before competitors do the same and the bad guys try to find ways around it?

Now that a specific anti “bot” program has been released, from Symantec no less, the threat from bots, botnets and zombified computers are hitting the news more often, and is finall entering the mainstream users in a big way.

No longer just viruses, Trojan horses, macro viruses or boot sector threats, a whole new class of spyware and malware has arisen in the Internet age.

Bots and botnets took malware to a new level of badness and intrusiveness, joining tens and even hundreds of thousands of computers together into a network created to send spam advertising, phishing spam, do denial-of-service attacks and more.

Symantec’s research, published in their Internet Security Threat Report (Volume XI, March 2007) found that in the last six months of 2006, there were more than 6 million active bots - approximately 30% more zombie computers than observed in the previous six-month period. Bots are being loaded onto more and more computers.

Bots can also be empowered with new features and capabilities as the botnet control software silently loaded onto each affected PC can be just as silently upgraded with a new version.

Computer users with older operating systems and older browsers, even if protected by the latest 2007 Internet security programs, can potentially still be infected by a bot and joined up to a botnet.

Even the latest computers with all the updates and patches for the operating system and accompanying software still have the potential of being infected if the user goes to the wrong website or is affected by an as yet unpatched vulnerability. And worse still, improperly removed bots can quickly re-install themselves, bringing you back to square one.

This is where Symantec’s AntiBot software aims to come into play, working in conjunction with your existing Internet Security solution but focusing specifically on bots and botnets.

Symantec say that Norton AntiBot uses “active behavior-based heuristic detection that is always on” to detect botnets in real time and prevent any damage by stopping installation or removing bots on the system.

Symantec say that “consumers can reduce their exposure to bot-related attacks by deploying multiple layers of protection technologies, including intrusion prevention, signature-based detection and behavior-based detection. By using complementary technologies, users have the most effective protection against known and unknown forms of malware, including bots”.

Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Consumer Products Division, Symantec said that: “Consumers need to know that they may be directly implicated in the criminal activities being perpetrated by botnets – if not by having their own identity or personal information stolen, then by being part of a network of zombie PCs carrying out large scale criminal activities like massive spam distribution and phishing email schemes”.

Trollope continued that: “We’re estimating millions upon millions of bot-infected PCs in existence today, with the vast majority of these users having no idea of what’s going on behind the scenes of their own computer. Norton AntiBot is an important new tool for strengthening consumer security and stopping these insidious threats.”

Symantec is selling Norton AntiBot for US $29.95 from their online store with one year of updates built-in . AntiBot currently isn’t available as part of the Norton Internet Security 2007 suite, nor is it part of Norton 360, but it’s likely that Norton will introduce it into one of the bundles (or at least add the functionality) into at least one of the two packages in the 2008 version, although Symantec has said nothing publicly in that regard.

A competitor of sorts is TrustDefender, offering transaction security, anti-phishing, anti-malware, anti-rootkit and even anti-bot capabilities when conducting any online transaction, available as a free download on a 21 day trial .

Recently winning a 2007 iAward and already available for well over a year, it sounds like an ideal complement to Norton AntiBot technology, both of which should be in addition to your current 2007 Internet Security package.

Competitors will start offering their own antibot packages, while the 'bad guys' can be counted on to try and find ways around security protections.

It’s a pity we can’t get all of this protective technology in the one software package, but at least, until then, separate security solutions which work together can be put to protective use, should you choose to do so.

And as with anything in life, the level of protection you choose to implement in your home, business or elsewhere, is up to you!

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