Researchers create botnet to learn how it works
A team of researchers in Canada recently released results of a study in which they created a botnet strictly for experimental purposes. The simulation allowed the researchers at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, with collaborators at Nancy University in France, and Carlton University in Ottawa, to observe the botnet's behavior while keeping it from infecting other machines.
"Because the IP address of a bot needs not be unique (bots are primarily identified by their 16-byte ID), it is possible to generate large number of sybils - with unique IDs but with the same IP address -whilst using few machines, thus making this attack relatively easy to mount," the results read.
The attack managed to stop the botnet from sending out spam within an hour, researchers said.
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