In this paper, we will examine in general the multiple generations of malware leading up to the latter category of botnets, and in specific the failures and successes in the category of hybrid/P2P ...botnets. We will include some thoughts on the implications for telecommunications providers in an age where anti-virus, anti-spam, intrusion prevention systems, and firewalls individually may to prevent the compromise of internal enterprise or customer systems, and how reaction capabilities must adapt to the emerging threat environment. The convergence of features in today's "smart phones" will bring this threat to hand-held devices in the same manner as historically has been seen in desktop and portable computers.
In spite of significant ethical challenges faced by researchers evaluating modern threats, the computer security field has yet to grow its own active ethics community to describe and evaluate the ...ethical implications of its work. Modern threats such as denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, worms, viruses, phishing, and botnets underscore the need for Internet security research in an increasingly networked and computationally reliant society. This research involves not only appropriate responses but also difficult issues of privacy and responsible disclosure of vulnerability information.
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