Tech Group Combats Botnets

A group of different ISPs and internet firms will convene early next year in San Francisco to discuss and establish schemes to battle botnets. The group, also known as Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), was formed in 2004 aimed to bring the messaging industry together to work collaboratively and successfully address forms of messaging abuse.

During the meeting, MAAWG will talk over ways to abate and counteract botnets. An evaluation on how to sort out infected machines will also be deliberated, as well as teaching users to free their machines from possible bugs. MAAWG members include major companies such as Comcast, Yahoo, AT&T, Verizon and AOL.

Botnets are a pool of software robots, or bots, that operate indepently and automatically. It has gradually become the preferred method of spammers and hackers to launch DDoS attacks. Botnets are usually hard to terminate because users of infected machines often do not have any hint they've been used as part of a malicious network.