Killing Botnets - A view from the trenches [ PDF ]

The growth of botnets represents the greatest threat to individuals and nations. This white paper describes an actual incident and outlines a series of events during the spring of 2006 that affected one of the world’s leading international communications companies. This paper provides an insight into the scale of botnet attacks that have so far received limited news coverage. It further explains how McAfee network IPS solutions provide real benefits as an effective tool to combat botnets.

This international business (parent company referred to as Company X for reasons of privacy) operates integrated telecommunications companies in more than 30 countries offering mobile, broadband, and domestic and international fixed-line services to residential and business customers. Company Y (a subsidiary of Company X) is the national telco for a Central American country. Company Y was suffering from regular network interruptions and outages due to perceived Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and other inexplicable large volumes of traffic. This was having an effect on national infrastructure. Concurrently, an IPS deployment project was underway within key areas of Company X, and this was extended to include Company Y as a priority.