The Internet is Infected

Tonight on 60 Minutes Lesley Stahl will be reporting on computer viruses and botntets that propagate on the Internet and infect PCs, which enable their creators to do all types of evil things via remote command and control. The show airs tonight, should get some good ratings - it's right after the NCAAs. And if information security alone is not your thing Lebron James is featured on another segment in the show. Leslie Stahl previews her report below.

Damballa, an ATDC startup protects businesses from targeted attacks used for organized crime contributed to the show. Not sure what information from Damballa is going to be used on the show but the fact that 60 Minutes is doing a segment on it is huge. The mainstream market is taking an interest in and being educated on the potential impact of botnet armies.

Update: Here is the segment.

Comments

Hats off to Dr. Mustaque Ahamad, Dr. Wenke Lee and Dr. Patrick Traynor of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center and the College of Computing's School of Computer Science for providing the background to 60 Minutes for this feature.

Stefany W. | Mar 29, 09 at 04:51 PM

Does the second video work for you guys?

Paul Stamatiou | Mar 31, 09 at 09:08 PM

2nd vid is fixed.

Lance | Mar 31, 09 at 10:31 PM

Interesting video, found it rather educational. However, the Mac fanboy in me could not help but think that this would do great as an Apple commercial with Steve Jobs laid on top of the video and talking about how this wouldn't happen if you were on a Mac haha.

That being said, I'm truly curious about what "instructions" conficker will be receiving tomorrow.

Paul Stamatiou | Mar 31, 09 at 11:03 PM

Dear God, what happened to Lesley Stahl's neck??!!

SJ | Apr 06, 09 at 05:25 PM