Cybercrooks Increasingly Use Tor Network To Control Botnets 99
alphadogg writes "Malware writers are increasingly considering the Tor anonymity network as an option for hiding the real location of their command-and-control servers, according to researchers from security firm ESET. The researchers recently came across two botnet-type malware programs that use C&C servers operating as Tor 'hidden services.' The Tor Hidden Service protocol allows users to set up services — usually Web servers — that can only be accessed from within the Tor network through a random-looking hostname that ends in the .onion pseudo domain extension. The traffic between a Tor client and a Tor hidden service is encrypted and is randomly routed through a series of computers participating in the network and acting as relays."
Glorious Leader Obummer (Score:1, Insightful)
Fear not Citizen. Glorious Leader Obummer will ban Tor and encryption so that the terrorists can never hurt you again. We now return you back to your regularly scheduled programming: American Idol.
Cool. (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, you shouldn't blame Tor for this. I'm sure Freenet could equally be used, but Tor is just easy. Instead, blame the OS manufactures, and the owners of the bot-ridden machines. Seriously. It's your fault if you don't know enough about your car that you ignore the oil light and it seizes up on a highway. And it's your fault if your machine is turned into a cog of part of a greater machine, bending to the whims of some "hacker".
Maybe it's time to bring back computers with the OS stored in ROM, so that is is reset to a clean state every time the computer is restarted.
Re:shocking (Score:2, Insightful)
The best way to rob a bank is... owning one !
so true, and so wrong, that is not funny :-\
Anonymity and you (Score:5, Insightful)
Anonymity is a powerful force. In both directions. The anonymous writings of the late 18th century were every bit as powerful as a masked bandit.
I, for one, do not consider the risk of Tor to be greater than the benefit.
Alarmist journalism (Score:4, Insightful)
The article found two examples of using Tor, and had already identified one from the past. That's the justification for the "increasingly using Tor" headline? Then again, I'm surprised that they didn't run with a headline of "Malware using Tor Doubled!"
Re:I guess I don't know how these things work (Score:4, Insightful)
This is true only if you intended target is on the regular internet and not within Tor itself. The article speaks to hidden services within Tor so exit nodes don't even come into play.
There are plenty of hidden services inside the Tor network that are far worse than botnet C&Cs and those have been going on for years now. Methinks if there was a way to shutdown bad stuff on Tor, you'd have already heard about it.