Characterizing Botnets-as-a-Service

摘要

Botnets are one of today's most challenging cybersecurity threats, and promise to remain a serious threat for many years to come.Bots today are not limited to sophisticated machines, such as servers and personal computers: recent DDoS attacks were reportedly utilizing fridges, and other massive scanning activities were using embedded devices, including IP monitoring cameras and security doors. Driven by economical profit, botnets are arising in what has been coined as "Botnet-as-a-Service (BaaS)". Many of today's botnets are designed and developed to be loaned easily to third parties. Reportedly botnet controllers can make a large amount of money by loaning the service in the mature underground market. Understanding such phenomena through analysis has been the goal of the research community for a while to develop effective defense mechanisms and to guide disinfections.