The BT Business Botnet Buster

Davey Winder
Sunday, 07 September 2008 14:42

IT Industry - Market

Malicious botnet attacks represent a growing threat to enterprise networks. Which is probably why BT's Managed Security Solutions Group has launched it's Business Botnet Buster...

BT has announced a major enhancement to the existing global Event Monitoring and Correlation service (powered by BT Counterpane, headed up by security guru Bruce Schneier), to help better defend enterprise networks against the threat posed by malicious botnets.

With new and proprietary detection tools to hand, BT reckons it can identify those hosts within any customer network which are under the direct control of a botnet.

It does not take a genius to work out that botnets represent a significant, and growing, security risk to everyone. However, businesses are particularly at risk not least because the primary function of most botnets is criminal activity.

Which means that not only is the botnet exposed business at risk of suffering the corporate and compliance consequences of having its data compromised, but also the legal ones leading on from potential liability of criminal activity through an infected network.

Of course, most savvy businesses are already ensuring that they follow best practise with regards to network security and data protection, but does this mean they are safe?

Not according to BT's Managed Security Solutions Group which says that even then they can still be compromised by bots and be unaware they have been infected.

This is because many bots will communicate very infrequently with command and control hosts, reducing the chances of detection until a critical event occurs.

However, by their nature, botnets do have to communicate sometime and that's when they are exposed as they will generate firewall traffic. BT has added a botnet detecting capability to its security services.

Not only can this detect the business botnet, but BT can then assist the customer with quarantine and remediation efforts to restore the network’s integrity.

Ray Stanton, the Global Head of BT's Business Continuity, Security and Governance Practise, says that with industry projections showing seven million separate botnet attacks every business day, it is essential for companies to protect themselves. "Our botnet detection tools provide customers with a significant layer of additional protection that wasn't previously available" Stanton concludes.