Razor, BindView Corporation's elite team of security gurus, has made available a free computer program to instruct "Zombies" to go back to sleep thereby halting their cyber attacks. Zombies are software programs that help route the recent denial of service attacks plaguing major e-commerce sites.
This was announced by Frank Appunn, MD at network security distributor SourceTech, the South African distributor for BindView, who says Zombie Zapper is a free, downloadable, open source utility that stops an attack in process by putting the Zombie back to sleep.
The executable program, source code, and an accompanying technical paper are available at http://razor.bindview.com.
"Recent well-publicised denial of service attacks have wreaked havoc on popular web sites such as Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon. These attacks have highlighted the potential vulnerability of the Internet's infrastructure. In these type of denial of service attacks, hackers are exploiting security holes in computer systems by planting "sleeper" software known as Zombies on hundreds and even potentially thousands of unsuspecting computers.
"Then, on command from the hackers, all the Zombies "wake up" and cause their computers to flood a targeted Web site with millions of messages, effectively blocking access to legitimate users. While investigations are underway to combat this new wave of hacker intrusions, Zombie Zapper is the only solution available to stop these attacks in their tracks," claims Appunn.
Zombie Zapper stops denial of service attacks by spoofing the command that a hacker would send to the Zombie thereby stopping the attack. The utility sends the command to the Trinoo, Tribal Flood Network and "Stacheldraht" Zombie software that hackers have used to launch such attacks. BindView has made free versions of this open source utility available for immediate download and installation.
By offering the program as open source code, BindView is allowing network administrators, as well as the security community at large, to understand and modify the Zombie Zapper software.
"BindView's RAZOR team is committed to remaining on the cutting edge of security issues," according to Marc Camm, VP of Marketing at BindView. "The RAZOR team has worked around the clock and stayed in close contact with the hacker community throughout this situation. Quickly providing the Zombie Zapper as open source code, confirms our commitment to assist the Internet community in managing the on-going risks associated with their enterprise and e-business infrastructures."
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