By Bill Brenner

Wed, April 15, 2009 — CSO — The perpetual proliferation of botnets is hardly surprising when one considers just how easy it is for the bad guys to hijack computers without tipping off the users.

Botnets have long used a variety of configurations, in part to disguise their control mechanisms -- see What a Botnet Looks Like. But as user-friendly but insecure applications continue to become available -- especially social networking programs used by the non-tech-savvy -- hackers have an ever growing number of security holes to choose from. They're also getting smarter about building resilient architectures, according to botnet hunters who have monitored recent activity.

Here are four reasons the botnet fight is getting harder, and what to do about it:

1. Operating below the radar
While much of the attention lately has been on botnet activity related to the Conficker worm (see Conficker Group: Worm 4.6 Million Strong), researchers say some of the largest botnets have largely escaped media attention. And that's how the bad guys like it. More......

2. Malware can shield itself
Among the problems security researchers have encountered when trying to track and shut down botnets is that the newer worms used to build botnets are using strong cryptography to protect the command-and-control centers, said Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist at Cryptography Research. More....

Continued @ CIO.com