Cyberpunk Radio - #118 - Botnets

Bot net operatives have taken control of almost 12 million new IP
addresses since January. The United States has the largest number
of bot net-controlled machines, with 18 percent of the world total.
The number of new zombie machines represents a 50 percent rise over
last year. Researchers attribute the explosion to bot net
controllers trying to wrestle complete control of the Internet. A
computer worm is a self-replicating computer program- painting the
Net in shades of crimson and green; fade to grey. It uses the
Network to send copies of itself to other computers on the Network.
Worms get code updates periodically, making them nearly impossible
to disrupt. Infected machines query for updated commands through
encrypted p2p networks- the Darknets. It appears the latest variant
of Worms are part of a coordinated, distributed bot net of historic
proportion. If the number of infected machines controlled by the
bot net proceeds to increase at the current exponential rate,
nearly 1/3 of all computers connected to the Internet will be
infected by the end of next year. Authorities claim the true
purpose of this ubiquitous bot net remains a mystery. Until
recently the bot net has been essentially dormant, reticent of
purpose. Deep packet NSA intercepts from Darknet, decoded via
MAGISTRAND using parallel SILKWORTH supercomputer systems, hint at
the nefarious goals of the Bot Net; encrypted data streams used by
the botnet take time to decipher- weeks at a minimum, even for the
NSA. This results in a equivalent time shift from the time stamp on
the intercepted data. This much is known. Recruitment of human
agents into various Darknet Factions appears to well under way. It
appears that some select Massively Multiplayer Online Role playing
(MMOR) and First person shooter (FPS) computer games contain "back
doors" that allow redirects from local (user) and game company
servers to a slew of encrypted p2p Darknet network servers located
in such far flung locations as North Korea, Russia, China,
Pakistan, and Brazil. IP addresses of these servers is changed
through encrypted updates, making disruption impossible; a new,
anarchistic government- DarkNet. In this Darknet, much like in
video games, level up achievements are awarded for outstanding
performance. However, unlike in video games, achievement awards are
based on real world actions- such as new member recruitment,
development of underground operations involved in subversive or
'criminal' activity. A recently arrested member of a particularly
notorious Darknet Faction, believed to be involved in sex worker
trafficking and drug distribution, bragged of assets including
control of networks in major banking and infrastructure centers, as
well as military command and control networks. It is rumored that
the reported "accidental" launch of a trident missile last month
was a direct result of this Factions' intrusion into a previously
secure NET COM systems.