Emulating a million machines to investigate botnets.
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California are creating what is in effect a vast digital petridish able to hold one million operating systems at once in an effort to study the behavior of rogue programs known as botnets. Botnets are used extensively by malicious computer hackers to steal computing power fron Internet-connected computers. The hackers harness the stolen resources into a scattered but powerful computer that can be used to send spam, execute phishing, scams or steal digital information. These remote-controlled 'distributed computers' are difficult to observe and track. Botnets may take over parts of tens of thousands or in some cases even millions of computers, making them among the world's most powerful computers for some applications.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 1021604
- Report Number(s):
- SAND2010-3687C
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Ten million and one penguins, or, lessons learned from booting millions of virtual machines on HPC systems.
Mean-Field-Game Model for Botnet Defense in Cyber-Security