Botnets (also called zombie armies or drone armies) are networks of compromised computers infected with viruses or malware to turn them into “zombies” or “robots” – computers that can be controlled without the owners’ knowledge. Criminals use the collective computing power and connected bandwidth of these externally-controlled networks for malicious purposes and criminal activities, including, inter alia, generation of spam e-mails, launching of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, alteration or destruction of data, and identity theft.

The threat from botnets is growing fast. The latest (2007) generation of botnets such as Zhelatin (Storm Worm) uses particularly aggressive techniques such as fast-flux networks and striking back with DDoS attacks against security vendors trying to mitigate them. An underground economy has now sprung up around botnets, yielding significant revenues for authors of computer viruses, botnet controllers and criminals who commission this illegal activity by renting botnets.

In response to this, ITU is developing a Botnet Mitigation Toolkit to help deal with the growing problem of botnets. Inspired by the Australian Internet Security Initiative (AISI), the toolkit draws on existing resources, identifies relevant local and international stakeholders, and takes into consideration the specific constraints of developing economies. The toolkit seeks to raise awareness among Member States of the growing threats posed by botnets and the linkage with criminal activities and incorporates policy, technical and social aspects of mitigating the effects of botnets. The first draft of the toolkit will be made available in December 2007, with pilot tests planned in a number of ITU Member States in 2008.

Please contact cybmail@itu.int for more information about the toolkit.

Powerpoint Project Overview (September 2007)

Background Information on ITU Botnet Mitigation Toolkit (November 2007)

ITU Botnet Mitigation Toolkit (under development)

The background paper, once published, will form the basis of at least 
two nationwide pilot projects over 2008, involving local, regional and
international groups from government, industry, independent 
researchers, NGOs etc. The first is going to be in Malaysia in association with the 
Malaysian government, in 1Q2008.

The background paper is structured to provide a short "toolkit" of 
approaches, with three large appendices describing policy, technology and social
initiatives that can be followed. There will, inevitably, be some 
crossover between these three appendices, and again inevitably, people familiar 
with one section of the paper may at the most be broadly aware of issues in the 
other sections.