Norton Antibot is software licensed from Sana Security that detects bots, spyware, adware and other malware based on their behavior. It does not need a signature database to operate because it detects suspect behaviors.
Norton Antibot is designed to work with antivirus software to extend your protection into threats that have not yet been identified a published by major antivirus vendors.
The beauty of Norton Antibot lies in its proactive protection against these unknown threats. This software is not designed to remove viruses already on your computer but it is to prevent new threats from getting on your computer in particular…bots.
Norton Antibot is for a select group of computer users who feel the need for coveraga beyond the protection available in their antivirus and firewall software. Norton Antibot is for those who want to protect their computers from botnets (see: what is a botnet?). As time passes, the botnet severity continues to get worse. In a 2007 PC Magazine article, "According to Symantec's threat research group there are 6 million active bots on the loose." This is definitely getting to be a problem that the average computer owner needs to take into serious consideration.
In the next few posts we will investigate Norton Antibot. A joint venture between Symantec and Sana.
We want to answer these questions:
- Who needs Norton Antibot?
- What is Norton Antibot exactly?
- When does it perform its function?
- Where is this software product designed to be used?
- Why is Norton Antibot needed?
- How do I purchase Norton Antibot?
Networks which unite the resources of even millions of infected computers, have the potential to be extremely dangerous – a potential which has not yet been fully exploited. Virtually all this cyber power stems from infected home computers, which make up the overwhelming majority of zombie machines (computers infected with bots from a botnet) exploited.
You can protect yourself by installing a good antivirus software package including a firewall. Lately, a new line of software applications have been created specifically to fight this threat. One of them is created by Norton called Norton Antibot.
Botnets are created for at least one of the following reasons:
- To send spam
- To harvest email addresses – to send spam
- To blackmail someone
- Denial of Service attacks
- Phishing
- Theft of confidential data – credits cards, account numbers, etc.
Botnets are found on home computers, education, government and military servers. Basically, they can potentially be found anywhere there is a computer and Internet connection.
Most users of zombie computers (computers that have been infected by a bot) are unlikely to be aware that their computer is being used in a botnet, as activity is low when not attacking another computer or spamming.
Protect your PC from being hijacked – Norton AntiBot Click Here
Botnets emerged in the press by security vendors in 2006. I have found documentation that says they began circa 1998. Knowing that technologies like this had to grow to a certain level to be on the radar. It appears as if they were slowly growing up to 2006 and now have exploded in number.
In this context, botnets refer to malicious software robots. These bots are installed on unsuspecting computers of individuals and businesses. The software is then controlled by a single command center called a "bot herder." This individual or individuals originate the bots and control them remotely.
The bots are installed using viruses such as worms, trojans and backdoors. What makes them so hard to detect is that the run based on industry standard RFC 1459 which is IRC. This communication protocol is used by many well know client applications such as Trillian Messenger, mIRC and World of Warcraft.
What makes this attacker even more effective is that recently the newer bots can host other bots. This type of host-beneficiary relationship is mostly implemented on education servers where the internet bandwidth will support this type of activity.
Protect your PC from being hijacked – Norton AntiBot Click Here
A computerworld article cites Joe Stewart, director of malware research at SecureWorks Inc., has estimated the bots on his list control just over a million machines and are capable of flooding the Internet with more than 100 billion spam messages every day.
So that tells me that everybody with a computer and an Internet connection is in danger. Furthermore, this is substantiated by my research findings which state that botnets use dial-up, DSL and cable internet connections. Not only are home computer users not safe but botnets are on education, government and military networks as well. The criminals that create botnets are worldwide.
Protect your PC from being hijacked – Norton AntiBot Click Here
In this series of posts, botnets are discussed. Here are the questions we want to answer:
- Who are the target of BotNets?
- What are BotNets?
- When did BotNets emerge?
- Where are BotNets found?
- Why are BotNets created?
- How can you protect yourself against BotNets?
