Old Uncle Sam seems determined to crack down on botnets, but he still needs a little help figuring out how to do so. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a request for information, inviting companies from internet and IT companies to contribute their ideas to a voluntary “code of conduct” for ISPs to follow when facing a botnet infestation. The move comes as an apparent response to a June “Green Paper” on cybersecurity, in which the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force called for a unified code of best practices to help ISPs navigate through particularly treacherous waters. At this point, the NIST is still open to suggestions from the public, though Ars Technica reports that it’s giving special consideration to two models adopted overseas. Australia’s iCode program, for example, calls for providers to reroute requests from shady-looking systems to a site devoted to malware removal. The agency is also taking a hard look at an initiative (diagrammed above) from Japan‘s Cyber Clean Center, which has installed so-called “honeypot” devices at various ISPs, allowing them to easily detect and source any attacks, while automatically notifying their customers via e-mail. There are, however, some lingering concerns, as the NIST would need to find funding for its forthcoming initiative, whether it comes from the public sector, corporations or some sort of public-private partnership. Plus, some are worried that anti-botnet programs may inadvertently reveal consumers’ personal information, while others are openly wondering whether OS-makers should be involved, as well. The code’s public comment period will end on November 4th, but you can find more information at the source link, below.

US government to beat back botnets with a cybersecurity code of conduct originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists build WiFi hunter-killer drone and call it SkyNET… Viene Tormenta! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 05:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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See that chart up there? That’s a beautiful visualization of a dozen folk models surrounding the idea of home computer security, devised by Michigan State’s own Rick Wash. To construct it (as well pen the textual explanations to back it), he interviewed a number of computer users with varying levels of sophistication, with the goal being to find out how normal Earthlings interpreted potential threats to their PC. His findings? A vast amount of home PCs are frequently insecure because “they are administered by untrained, unskilled users.” He also found that PCs remain largely at risk despite a blossoming network of preventative software and advice, and almost certainly received an A for his efforts. Hit the source link for more, but only after you’ve spiffed up, thrown on a pair of spectacles and kicked one foot up on the coffee table that sits in front of you.

Visualized: preconceived notions about personal computer security originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stories have been going around that a botnet was being spread by the HTC Magic on Vodafone. Specifically, it was Panda Security that sounded the alarm after they plugged in said Android phone and had all kinds of alarms go off. However, it turns out it was an infected memory card that was the culprit, and not a bad batch of phones, as original post author Pedro Bustamante later points out in the comments.

It’s the memory card for sure, not the actual Android filesystem. It could be a malicious employee, a bad batch, provided by the manufacturer, lack of QA or a returned and refurbished unit. But as you said, either way Vodafone needs to better QA these before shipping out to customers.

Pedro’s right, there should be better Q&A to keep this from happening. But there also should be a little more discretion used before we see headlines such as "Vodafone distributes Mariposa botnet." (And the post itself hasn’t been updated?) An infected memory card is bad, but one bad apple does not an outbreak make. The sky’s not falling, folks.