Data Scraping as a Cause of Action: Limiting Use of the CFAA and Trespass in Online Copying Cases

In recent years, online platforms have used claims such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) and trespass to curb data scraping, or copying of web content accomplished using robots or web crawlers. However, as the term “data scraping” implies, the content typically copied is data or information that is not protected by intellectual property law, and the means by which the copying occurs is not considered to be hacking. Trespass and the CFAA are both concerned with authorization, but in data scraping cases, these torts are used in such a way that implies that real property norms exist on the Internet, a misleading and harmful analogy. To correct this imbalance, the CFAA must be interpreted in its native context, that of computers, computer networks, and the Internet, and given contextual meaning. Alternatively, the CFAA should be amended. Because data scraping is fundamentally copying, copyright offers the correct means for litigating data scraping cases. This Note additionally offers proposals for creating enforceable terms of service online and for strengthening copyright to make it applicable to user-based online platforms

Command & Control: Understanding, Denying and Detecting - A review of malware C2 techniques, detection and defences

In this survey, we first briefly review the current state of cyber attacks, highlighting significant recent changes in how and why such attacks are performed. We then investigate the mechanics of malware command and control (C2) establishment: we provide a comprehensive review of the techniques used by attackers to set up such a channel and to hide its presence from the attacked parties and the security tools they use. We then switch to the defensive side of the problem, and review approaches that have been proposed for the detection and disruption of C2 channels. We also map such techniques to widely-adopted security controls, emphasizing gaps or limitations (and success stories) in current best practices.Comment: Work commissioned by CPNI, available at c2report.org. 38 pages. Listing abstract compressed from version appearing in repor

Botnet lab creation with open source tools and usefulness of such a tool for researchers

Botnets are large scale networks, which can span across the internet and comprise of computers, which have been infected by malicious software and are centrally controlled from a remote location. Botnets pose a great security risk and their size has been rising drastically over the past few years. The use of botnets by the underground community as a medium for online crime, bundled with their use for profit has shined the spotlight on them. Numerous researchers have proposed and designed infrastructures and frameworks that identify newly formed botnets and their traffic patterns. In this research, the design of a unified modular open source laboratory is proposed, with the use of virtual machines and open source tools, which can be used in analyzing and dissecting newly found bots in the wild. Furthermore, the usefulness and flexibility of the open source laboratory is evaluated by infecting my test machines with the Zeus Bot

The White-hat Bot: A Novel Botnet Defense Strategy

Botnets are a threat to computer systems and users around the world. Botmasters can range from annoying spam email propagators to nefarious criminals. These criminals attempt to take down networks or web servers through distributed denial-of-service attacks, to steal corporate secrets, or to launder money from individuals or corporations. As the number and severity of successful botnet attacks rise, computer security experts need to develop better early-detection and removal techniques to protect computer networks and individual computer users from these very real threats. I will define botnets and describe some of their common purposes and current uses. Next, I will reveal some of the techniques currently used by software security professionals to combat this problem. Finally I will provide a novel defensive strategy, the White-hat Bot (WHB), with documented experiments and results that may prove useful in the defense against botnets in the future

ANALYSIS OF BOTNET CLASSIFICATION AND DETECTION BASED ON C&C CHANNEL

Botnet is a serious threat to cyber-security. Botnet is a robot that can enter the computer and perform DDoS attacks through attacker’s command. Botnets are designed to extract confidential information from network channels such as LAN, Peer or Internet. They perform on hacker's intention through Command & Control(C&C) where attacker can control the whole network and can clinch illegal activities such as identity theft, unauthorized logins and money transactions. Thus, for security reason, it is very important to understand botnet behavior and go through its countermeasures. This thesis draws together the main ideas of network anomaly, botnet behavior, taxonomy of botnet, famous botnet attacks and detections processes. Based on network protocols, botnets are mainly 3 types: IRC, HTTP, and P2P botnet. All 3 botnet's behavior, vulnerability, and detection processes with examples are explained individually in upcoming chapters. Meanwhile saying shortly, IRC Botnet refers to early botnets targeting chat and messaging applications, HTTP Botnet targets internet browsing/domains and P2P Botnet targets peer network i.e. decentralized servers. Each Botnet's design, target, infecting and spreading mechanism can be different from each other. For an instance, IRC Botnet is targeted for small environment attacks where HTTP and P2P are for huge network traffic. Furthermore, detection techniques and algorithms filtration processes are also different among each of them. Based on these individual botnet's behavior, many research papers have analyzed numerous botnet detection techniques such as graph-based structure, clustering algorithm and so on. Thus, this thesis also analyzes popular detection mechanisms, C&C channels, Botnet working patterns, recorded datasets, results and false positive rates of bots prominently found in IRC, HTTP and P2P. Research area covers C&C channels, botnet behavior, domain browsing, IRC, algorithms, intrusion and detection, network and peer, security and test results. Research articles are conducted from scientific books through online source and University of Turku library

A Study of Very Short Intermittent DDoS Attacks on the Performance of Web Services in Clouds

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks for web applications such as e-commerce are increasing in size, scale, and frequency. The emerging elastic cloud computing cannot defend against ever-evolving new types of DDoS attacks, since they exploit various newly discovered network or system vulnerabilities even in the cloud platform, bypassing not only the state-of-the-art defense mechanisms but also the elasticity mechanisms of cloud computing. In this dissertation, we focus on a new type of low-volume DDoS attack, Very Short Intermittent DDoS Attacks, which can hurt the performance of web applications deployed in the cloud via transiently saturating the critical bottleneck resource of the target systems by means of external attack HTTP requests outside the cloud or internal resource contention inside the cloud. We have explored external attacks by modeling the n-tier web applications with queuing network theory and implementing the attacking framework based-on feedback control theory. We have explored internal attacks by investigating and exploiting resource contention and performance interference to locate a target VM (virtual machine) and degrade its performance

Development of a multi-layered botmaster based analysis framework

Botnets are networks of compromised machines called bots that come together to form the tool of choice for hackers in the exploitation and destruction of computer networks. Most malicious botnets have the ability to be rented out to a broad range of potential customers, with each customer having an attack agenda different from the other. The result is a botnet that is under the control of multiple botmasters, each of which implement their own attacks and transactions at different times in the botnet. In order to fight botnets, details about their structure, users, and their users motives need to be discovered. Since current botnets require the information about the initial bootstrapping of a bot to a botnet, the monitoring of botnets are possible. Botnet monitoring is used to discover the details of a botnet, but current botnet monitoring projects mainly identify the magnitude of the botnet problem and tend to overt some fundamental problems, such as the diversified sources of the attacks. To understand the use of botnets in more detail, the botmasters that command the botnets need to be studied. In this thesis we focus on identifying the threat of botnets based on each individual botmaster. We present a multi-layered analysis framework which identifies the transactions of each botmaster and then we correlate the transactions with the physical evolution of the botnet. With these characteristics we discover what role each botmaster plays in the overall botnet operation. We demonstrate our results in our system: MasterBlaster, which discovers the level of interaction between each botmaster and the botnet. Our system has been evaluated in real network traces. Our results show that investigating the roles of each botmaster in a botnet should be essential and demonstrates its potential benefit for identifying and conducting additional research on analyzing botmaster interactions. We believe our work will pave the way for more fine-grained analysis of botnets which will lead to better protection capabilities and more rapid attribution of cyber crimes committed using botnets

Security Assessment of Select Computer Systems under Distributed Denial of Service Attacks Performed by Botnets

With the passage of time Internet connectivity has been found on more electronic devices than in previous decades. This continuous development may be perceived as a double-edged sword. While the world becomes more Internet-connected and quality of life increases, the lack of proper security protocols in some of these electronic devices permits illegitimate parties to take control of them for their own malicious purposes. This thesis studies the impact of compromised Internet-connected devices on commonly used server operating systems: Microsoft’s Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, Windows Server 2016 Datacenter, and Apple’s macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra deployed on Apple’s Mac Pro Server (Mac Pro Mid2010). Their performance under prevalent Distributed Denial of Service Attacks will be evaluated at equal attack traffic loads while utilizing three networks of simulated botnets. While the server was under attack connection rate, network traffic, processor utilization, processor temperature, and memory utilization were evaluated for computer systems under consideration

Framework for botnet emulation and analysis

Criminals use the anonymity and pervasiveness of the Internet to commit fraud, extortion, and theft. Botnets are used as the primary tool for this criminal activity. Botnets allow criminals to accumulate and covertly control multiple Internet-connected computers. They use this network of controlled computers to flood networks with traffic from multiple sources, send spam, spread infection, spy on users, commit click fraud, run adware, and host phishing sites. This presents serious privacy risks and financial burdens to businesses and individuals. Furthermore, all indicators show that the problem is worsening because the research and development cycle of the criminal industry is faster than that of security research. To enable researchers to measure botnet connection models and counter-measures, a flexible, rapidly augmentable framework for creating test botnets is provided. This botnet framework, written in the Ruby language, enables researchers to run a botnet on a closed network and to rapidly implement new communication, spreading, control, and attack mechanisms for study. This is a significant improvement over augmenting C++ code-bases for the most popular botnets, Agobot and SDBot. Rubot allows researchers to implement new threats and their corresponding defenses before the criminal industry can. The Rubot experiment framework includes models for some of the latest trends in botnet operation such as peer-to-peer based control, fast-flux DNS, and periodic updates. Our approach implements the key network features from existing botnets and provides the required infrastructure to run the botnet in a closed environment.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Copeland, John; Committee Member: Durgin, Gregory; Committee Member: Goodman, Seymour; Committee Member: Owen, Henry; Committee Member: Riley, Georg