Many media outlets focus on trends such as ransomware. While this is undoubtedly an important topic, it overshadows another equally important threat: botnets. For more than 15 years, botnets have been playing a role in the international cybercrime scene. The “Botconf.eu” conference, which is dedicated to fighting botnets, will take place in Montpellier (France) between December 6 and 8, 2017.
Botnets are involved in the most of the cybercriminal activities. They are used to send emails that are laced with malware (including ransomware) and they often are part of banking Trojan campaigns as well as DDoS attack.
Botnets are targeting almost every available platforms. For example, thousands of Android devices were found to be involved in the WireX Botnet. For Windows systems, one of the most widely propagated malware in 2017 was Zeus Panda, a banking Trojan botnet. It was the Mirai botnet, however, which confirmed what IT security specialists had feared for years: the IOTs are vulnerable.
A lot of initiatives are fielded against botnets, one of them being botfree.eu, an initiative spearheaded by the association of the Internet Industry ECO and supported by G DATA. In botfree.eu, users can find information as well as solutions for cleaning their PCs and other devices. Another initiative is botconf.eu, a technical conference where security actors share their research and their tools with the rest of the security comunity.
Botconf will take place 5th to 8th of December in Montpellier (France), and features high-quality talks. OVH, the French hosting company who was targeted by Mirai at the end of 2016, will present its IOT Botnet takedown automation system. Wannacry will be another hot topic. Maciej Kotowicz from CERT.pl or Paul Rascagnères from Talos will explain this targeted attack which impacted several international companies all around the globe.
If you are not in Montpellier, you can follow some talks through the botconf eu YouTube channel. Alternatively, G DATA France as well as some of our own G DATA Security researchers will be present during the conference. They will provide some news and insights during the conference.