Technology

Man Fined After Hiding From Facial Recognition Cameras

Posted on by Andy Miller

A man was given a public order fine after being stopped by police because he covered his face during a trial of facial recognition cameras in Romford, London.

What Facial Recognition Trial?

A deliberately “overt” trial of live facial recognition technology by the Metropolitan Police took place in the centre of Romford, London, on Thursday 31st January.  This was supposed to be the first day of a two-day trial of the technology, but the second day was cancelled due to concerns that the forecast snow would only bring a low level of footfall in the area.

Live facial recognition trials of this kind use vehicle-mounted cameras linked to a police database containing photos from a watchlist of selected images from the police database.  Officers are deployed nearby so that they can stop those persons identified and matched with suspects on the database.

In the Romford trial, the facial recognition filming was reported to have taken place from a parked police van and, according to the Metropolitan Police, the reason for the use of the technology was to reduce crime in the area, with a specific focus on tackling violent crime.

Why The Fine?

The trial also attracted the attention of human rights groups, such as Liberty and Big Brother Watch, members of which were nearby and were monitoring the trial.

It was reported that the man who was fined, who hasn’t been named by police, was observed pulling his jumper over part of his face and putting his head down while walking past the police cameras, possibly in response to having seen placards warning that passers-by were the subjects of filing by police automatic facial recognition cameras.

It has been reported that the police then stopped the man to talk to him about what they may have believed was suspicious behaviour and asked to see his identification. According to police reports, it was at this point that the man became aggressive, made threats towards officers and was issued with a penalty notice for disorder as a result.

8 Hours, 8 Arrests – But Only 3 From Technology

Reports indicate that the eight-hour trial of the technology resulted in eight arrests, but only three of those arrests were as a direct result of facial recognition technology.

Criticism

Some commentators have criticised this and other trials for being shambolic, for not providing value for money, and for resulting in mistaken identity.

Research Questions Reliability

Research by the University of Cardiff examined the use of facial recognition technology across several sporting and entertainment events in Cardiff for over a year, including the UEFA Champion’s League Final and the Autumn Rugby Internationals.  The research found that for 68% of submissions made by police officers in the Identify mode, the image had too low a quality for the system to work. Also, the research found that the locate mode of the FRT system couldn’t correctly identify a person of interest for 76% of the time.

Also, in December 2018, ICO head Elizabeth Dunham was reported to have launched a formal investigation into how police forces use facial recognition technology (FRT) after high failure rates, misidentifications and worries about legality, bias, and privacy.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It has been reported that spending over £200,000 on the deployment of facial recognition trials on 6 deployments between August 2016 and July 2018, no arrests were made.  On the surface, these figures suggest that, although the technology has the potential to add value and save costs, and although businesses in town centres are likely to welcome efforts to reduce crime, the trials to date don’t appear to have delivered value-for-money to taxpayers.

There was also criticism of the facial recognition system used in Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square over two days in the run-up to Christmas, where freedom campaigners such as Big Brother Watch and Liberty were concerned about mixed messages from police about how those who turn away from facial recognition cameras mounted in/on police vans because they don’t want to be scanned could be treated.

Despite some valid worries and criticism, most businesses and members of the public would probably agree that CCTV systems have a real value in helping to deter criminal activity, locating and catching perpetrators, and providing evidence for arrests and trials.  There are, however, several concerns, particularly among freedom and privacy groups, about how just how facial recognition systems are being (and will be) used as part of policing e.g. overt or covert, issues of consent, possible wrongful arrests due to system inaccuracies, and the widening of the scope of its purpose from the police’s stated aims.  Issues of trust where our personal data is concerned are still a problem, as are worries about a ‘big brother’ situation for many people.

Google Live Transcribe To Help Hard of Hearing

Posted on by Andy Miller

Google has announced the introduction of its ‘Live Transcribe’ app for Android which allows people who are deaf or hard of hearing to see a live, near real-time written display of conversations on their phone.

Live Transcribe

The Google Live Transcribe app offers deaf and hard of hearing a new portable, accessibility tool that offers a convenient and innovative new way to join in conversations. With the Live Transcribe app turned on, the Android phone microphone feeds conversations into the app which can display accurate, near real-time captions on the phone screen in 70 different languages and dialects.  It also enables two-way conversation via a type-back keyboard for users who can’t or don’t want to speak.  The app can connect with external microphones to improve transcription accuracy.

Another feature of the app is a blue circle in the corner of the screen that pulses to show the user the ambient noise level of wherever they are, thus showing the user if they need to move the phone / external microphone closer to a person for the app to ‘hear’ what they’re saying.

Live transcribe also vibrates the phone if someone speaks after a period of silence to prompt the user to look at the screen again.

Where, When & How Can You Get Live Transcribe?

The Live Transcribe app is available preinstalled on Pixel 3 phones and can be operated by switching it on in the Accessibility Settings.  The app is also available via the Google Play Store for other phones but is being released as a limited beta.  You can, however, sign up to be notified when more downloads of Live Transcribe are available in the Google Play Store by clicking on this link and scrolling to the bottom of the page: https://www.android.com/accessibility/live-transcribe/ .

Sound Amplifier App Too

Another Android phone accessibility app launch that has also been announced by Google is that of ‘Sound Amplifier’.  As the name suggests, this app can be used with headphones plugged into the phone to boost the volume (e.g. of the voice of someone who’s talking to you) especially in situations where there’s a lot of background noise. Sound Amplifier filters, augments and amplifies sounds in any environment that you find yourself in, and it works by increasing quiet sounds, while not over-boosting loud sounds.

The app can be customised via sound enhancement settings, and noise reduction can be applied to minimise distracting background noise with simple sliders and toggles.

Where, When & How Can You Get Sound Amplifier?

Sound Amplifier is available now, supports Android 9 Pie (or later) phones, is pre-installed on Pixel 3 phones, and is available on the Play Store.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

These apps could prove to be very convenient and useful in business, home and other settings for anyone who is deaf or is hard of hearing.  These apps demonstrate how technology can be used to solve old and difficult problems in new, and easy-to-use ways, and could provide an important step forward in accessibility for an outwardly invisible problem that millions of people suffer from.  For example, The World Health Organization estimates that by the year 2055, there will be 900 million people with hearing loss.

The Sound Amplifier app also provides Google with a way to compete with similar offerings from Apple.  For example, Apple offers a similar feature that works with AirPods, and iPhones can also work with some hearing aids.

$180 Million Password Taken To The Grave

Posted on by Andy Miller

115,000 customers of the of Canadian digital platform Quadriga are believed to be owed C$250 million, but C$180 ($137.21 million) in cryptocurrencies have been frozen after the platform’s founder, who was the only person with the password to the platform’s stored funds, died in December 2018.

What Is Quadriga?

QuadrigaCX is a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange/platform, which allows the trading of Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.  QuadrigaCX, was founded by Gerald Cotten and was Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange until 2019 and has 363,000 registered users.

Cold Storage

As part of QuadrigaCX’s security measures, ‘Cold Storage’ was used for most of the Bitcoins within their system. Unfortunately for Quadriga, it is this part of the system, where the bulk of their funds are stored that is ultimately protected by one main password that was known only to the late founder, Gerald Cotton.

Dead

Mr Cotton died aged 30 from complications related to Crohn’s disease while he was volunteering at an orphanage in India.

Widow Under Pressure

With so much money owed to customers, Mr Cotton’s widow, Jennifer Robertson is reported to have found herself under pressure to find the password.  It has been reported that Robertson, who was not involved in Cotten’s business while he was alive and does not have business records for QuadrigaCX, has conducted repeated searches for the password.

Although Robertson has Mr Cotten’s laptop, she has (so far) been unable to access the contents because it is encrypted, and no one has the password or recovery key for it. Additional attempts to decrypt the laptop have also been unsuccessful.

It has also been reported that Robertson has consulted an expert to help recover details from Cotten’s other computer and cell phones, although the expert’s attempts have been reported to have had only ‘limited’ success to date.

QuadrigaCX has now filed for “creditor protection” in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy.

Customers Unable to Withdraw Funds

In the meantime, customers have reported online that they have been unable to withdraw their funds from the platform for months, that they have only received limited information, and that the website was also recently taken down for maintenance.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This story highlights some of the risks associated with cryptocurrencies, and a how a lack of regulation and a market that’s still in its relatively early stages can leave investors in unusual, worrying situations such as this one. In many other types of financial business where there is that level of funding involved, it would also be highly unlikely that a single password known only to one person would play such an important role. Some would say that it’s ironic that passwords are often considered now to be much less secure than other security tools, and yet this password-controlled system has confounded even the experts so far.  What is also ironic is that the ‘cold storage’ of funds, in this case, was introduced as a security measure to protect customer funds but has ended up being so secure customers have no access to those funds.

Looking at the size of QuadrigaCX and the number of customers it has, cryptocurrencies clearly still provide a useful and valuable opportunity for trading and investment. They have, however, had a turbulent life to date, making the news for many negative reasons.  For example, just for bitcoin, regulations and restrictions in some countries (e.g. China), hacks, its volatility, a negative image from its use by international criminals and from its use in scams, a lack of knowledge about how to use it, and the fact that the high price of just one bitcoin made it (even more) niche, meant that it became a commodity and a fast-buck opportunity rather than an actual, useful currency, and the over-consumption and over-inflated value of bitcoin lead to its spectacular fall in value.  There have also been well-publicised falls in value for crypto-currencies like Ethereum’s ‘eher’ and Ripple’, and Tether found itself being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice over possible manipulation of bitcoin prices at the end of 2017.

All this said, many governments and banks would still like a ‘piece of the action’ of cryptocurrencies, and many market analysts see a future for them as a part of a wider ecosystem.

Large Rises in Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) Revenues, Fuelled By Public Cloud Demand

Posted on by Andy Miller

A massive 45% growth in the revenue of Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) in the fourth quarter has been fuelled by big profits in Amazon’s public cloud arm.

Beats Microsoft & Google In Cloud Infrastructure

The $7.4 billion cloud revenue, which is a jump 45% compared to the previous year, means that AWS is beating competitors Microsoft and Google in the market for cloud infrastructure.  These are the services that businesses and organisations use to outsource their computing and data storage needs.

To give some idea of the scale of the jump in revenue for AWS, these figures mean that it generated more operating income during 2018 than its North American retail operations and that AWS generated the revenue through $25.65bn in sales (compared with the $141.3bn from North American retail operations).

Central To Success

The operating income for AWS in the quarter was $2.18 billion, accounted for 58% of Amazon’s overall operating income, although there was a slight decrease in AWS’s operating margin.

This means that the cloud business has become central to Amazon’s success in terms of revenue and profits.

More Cloud Regions

Amazon purchased two more new cloud computing regions online in 2018, and it says that it plans to open four new regions and 12 new availability zones within those regions by the first half of 2020.

The company widened its base of cloud customers last year, including some big-name sign-ups such as Santander, Korean Air and Amgen.

Not Fastest Growing

Even though AWS has seen significant growth in revenue, Microsoft’s cloud business is growing even faster.  For example, Azure cloud revenue grew by 76% in the latest quarter.

It is, however, perhaps to be expected that the revenue growth rate of a fast-growing company drops off as their revenue base swells e.g. AWS’s has dropped from 78% in 2015 to 42% during the third quarter of 2017.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Amazon is clearly a company that has grown very quickly and has diversified (far) beyond its online roots into many areas, including bricks-and-mortar stores (groceries and books), self-service stores in the US, and healthcare, as well as experimenting with innovative new ways to gain an edge in its core business e.g. drone and robot parcel deliveries.  Amazon’s Alexa virtual personal assistant technology and Echo voice-controlled devices have also proven to be very popular in the marketplace.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing though, with the company’s business practices coming under more scrutiny from UK, US, and EU regulators, as well the UK government.

In the business cloud market, AWS is showing strong growth in what is a highly profitable sector as more businesses look to outsource to the cloud, but many market analysts now predict slowing growth and higher spending for Amazon as it tries to compete and fight competitor challenges on many diverse fronts.

Too Much Time In Front of a Screen Adversely Affects Child Development Says Study

Posted on by Andy Miller

Psychologists from the University of Calgary have published a study in the JAMA journal of Paediatrics, which found that 2-5 years olds who engaged in more screen time received worse scores in developmental screening tests.

The Study

The toddlers in the study were from 2,500 Alberta homes between 2011 and 2016.  Their families or caregivers were asked to report on how much time the toddlers spent in front of screens. The toddlers were reported to be averaging 2-3 hours per day screen time, and their families/caregivers filled out standard questionnaires about the basic motor and communication skills of the toddlers.  Results were reported for the children at 24, 36 and 60 months old.

Correlation Found

The study revealed a perhaps unsurprising correlation between more screen time and lower results.  For example, greater screen time at 24 months was found to be associated with poorer performance on developmental screening tests at 36 months, and greater screen time at 36 months was found to be associated with lower scores on developmental screening tests at 60 months.

In short, the study found that those toddlers who had excessive screen time were failing to meet developmental milestones in language and communication, problem-solving, and fine and gross motor skills.

Missing Important Interactions

Lead author of the report of the study, Sheri Madigan, commented on the University of Calgary website that if children are consumed with screen time, they aren’t getting enough physical activity, and that this means they aren’t developing the motor skills they need to run, ride a bike, or throw a ball. Madigan said that positive stimulation that aids physical and cognitive development comes from interactions with caregivers and that when children are “in front of their screens, these important parent-child interactions aren’t happening, and this can delay or derail children’s development.”

What Use Are The Results?

The authors of the report, Madigan and Dr Suzanne Tough, have suggested that the findings from this study could, for example, be of use to health-care professionals who are seeking to guide parents on the appropriate screen time limits for their children.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

As any parent of young children will know, and indeed as the authors of the report have acknowledged, technology is deeply entrenched in modern-day lives, and spending time in front of a screen is something that children do today as part of learning, playing an interacting with their peers.  The point here is that too much screen time for very young children (2 to 5) can set their personal development back in many important areas.

The authors of the report have said that parents needn’t become too concerned, because children’s brains develop over the course of childhood and beyond, so there’s time to make changes.  The authors also suggest that one way that parents can minimise damage to the development of their children from too much screen time by creating and implementing a family media plan. This can involve controlling the number of hours spent in front of screens, establishing device-free zones e.g. at the dinner table, and introducing baskets where everybody puts their devices at certain times of the day, in order to make time for the family connect and interact.

Tech Tip – Drag & Drop Tasks To Your Calendar

Posted on by Andy Miller

In Windows 10, the Tasks experience in Outlook.com (powered by ‘To-Do’) means that when looking at your inbox, you can save time and create tasks by dragging and dropping an email to your task list. You can also easily schedule items by dragging a task to your calendar. Your tasks then travel with you on the To-Do app.

You can see how it’s done on the Windows Blog here:

Go to https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/12/16/windows-10-tip-schedule-items-by-dragging-a-task-to-your-calendar/#WX3WrBWATdGxSk48.97

Over Half Of Us Will Buy Food Online By 2021

Posted on by Andy Miller

A study by Capgemini has found that more than half of UK consumers will order their groceries from online retailers by 2021.

40% Now

The study found that a massive 40% of customers already do their grocery shopping online, and that 43% of customers shop for food online at least once a week.

Big Issues Around Delivery

The study also revealed some big issues that customers had around the subject of delivery.

For example, even though 59% of customers said that they are not satisfied with current high delivery prices, only 1% of retailers are willing to cover full delivery costs for shopping.

Also, nearly half of the consumers surveyed said they would stop spending with a retailer if they had a bad delivery experience, but on the upside, 53% of customers who said that if they had a good delivery experience with a brand, they would be willing to pay for a membership if it meant that they could keep having good delivery experiences in the future.

The study also showed that 65% of customers are finding greater satisfaction in using delivery services other than traditional supermarket retailers e.g. Ocado and Google Express.  In fact, 64% of those surveyed said they didn’t care whether their products were delivered by a brand or by a third party, and some of those surveyed said they’d even deliver products to their nearby neighbours in return for an incentive from the retailer.

The ‘Last-Mile’ Cost

One of the big problems that retailers face in delivery groceries is that the so-called ‘last-mile’.  This is the movement of goods from a transportation hub to the final delivery destination (i.e. your home), and this part of the supply chain accounts for 41% of the overall delivery cost for retailers.  This may explain the reluctance of retailers to cover full delivery costs for shopping, as shown by the survey.

Disconnect

The study also highlights a disconnect between the expectations of customers and retailers.  For example, although customers appear to place a high value on low delivery costs, only 30% of retailers think this is important.  Also, whereas a massive 73% of customers want to choose a convenient delivery time slot for goods, only 19% of retailers regard this as a priority.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

There is no doubt that many of us are now used to (and prefer) online shopping for many things, including groceries, and if, as the study shows, even more of us are going to be doing our grocery shopping online going forward, grocery retailers are faced with several challenges in order to meet rising customer expectations and retain loyalty.  For example, retailers will need to be able to provide last-mile delivery services that customers value, without damaging their own profitability.  Also, retailers need to take more notice generally of issues around delivery that customers really value e.g. offering convenient delivery time slots/methods for goods, and minimising delivery costs to customers.

One thing the study has indicated is that customers may even be willing to try new delivery ideas, and even pay more if they can be assured of consistently better delivery experiences.  With this in mind, and with customers rising, grocery retailers are likely to invest more in automating warehouse and product sorting to reduce costs and embrace new things such as machine learning and automation technology to make the supply chain more efficient.

Apple Blames China In Revenue Warning To Investors

Posted on by Andy Miller

On 2nd January, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, issued a revenue warning for this quarter to investors, and pointed to challenges in China as being one of the main downward driving forces.

Letter

Bearing in mind that Apple is one of America’s (and the world’s) tech giants, and that it became the world’s first trillion-dollar public company back in August 2018, it has been somewhat of a surprise to hear that its share price has tumbled more than 20% since October, and that the company has now sent a revenue warning letter to its investors revising down its expected earnings for this quarter. In the letter, Mr Cook pointed to the unforeseen “magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China” as one key reason why a previously predicted rise in revenue had now turned into warnings of a fall in revenue.

What’s The Problem?

Tech market analysts and commentators have cited several reasons for Apple’s woes and the link to the Chinese market, including:

  • Apple needs new iPhone sales, but a lack of technological advances in the iPhone since iPhone 8, combined with a hike in the price of iPhones at a time of global economic pressures on consumers have meant a fall in sales.
  • Some competing Android phones may simply be more interesting and offer better value in terms of price / features e.g. Google Pixel, Oppo’s X, OnePlus 6, or the Huawei P20 Pro.
  • Apple relies heavily on phone sales in the Chinese market (Apple makes a massive 20% of its revenue in the Greater China region) but has faced very stiff competition there from the likes of Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo with their high value, lower priced phones.
  • Trade war talk and tensions between the U.S. and China have put more downward pressure on Apple phone sales in China.  For example, the detention of a senior Huawei executive caused a patriotism-fuelled backlash against Apple’s phones in China.
  • Apple investors are worried about iPhone sales generally, which have clearly been in decline since the iPhone 8.
  • Apple investors have concerns and questions about how other Apple services will be developed as revenue generators e.g. ApplePay, Apple Music, the App store, plans for television and movies, and goals for competing in the health industry.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Apple products and services are known for their quality, reliability, ease of use, and useful features, and many UK businesses / business people will continue to use them. It is difficult to deny, however, that many new Android phone models, such as those from Huawei or Samsung, offer UK buyers great value for money and useful features compared to Apple’s relatively high-priced alternative. This, combined with Apple’s reliance on getting a large part of its revenue in a country (China) where it is facing stiff competition and trade-war pressures are contributing to a challenging time for Apple.

It is, however, worth remembering that Apple is a trillion-dollar tech giant and is better placed than most to weather any storms and find ways to develop new opportunities and revenue streams.

London Police Facial Recognition Trial

Posted on by Andy Miller

It has been reported that the police are conducting a trial of a facial recognition system in Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square over two days in the run-up to Christmas in a bid to identify people among the Christmas shoppers who are wanted by the police or the courts.

Overt

Far from being used secretly, the Metropolitan Police are reported to be publicly announcing the use of the system using knee-height signs on pavements leading up to the surveillance areas, along with A4 posters on lamp posts and leaflets handed-out to members of the public by uniformed officers.

The actual surveillance using the facial recognition link-up to the police database of wanted offenders is reported to have been carried out (on Monday and Tuesday) by a green van with cameras mounted on the top. It has been also been reported that for this London trial of facial recognition, the Metropolitan Police will have been studying the crowds for 8 hours per day over the two day period, and have been specifically using a target list of 1,600 wanted people in the hope that crime and violence can be more effectively tackled.

Criticism

Criticism from privacy and freedom campaigners such as Big Brother Watch and Liberty has focused on mixed messages from police about how those who turn away from the van because they don’t want to be scanned will be treated.  For example, it has been claimed that some officers have said that this will be treated as a trigger for suspicion, whereas a Metropolitan Police press release has stated that those who decline to be scanned (as is their right) during the deployment will not be viewed as suspicious by police officers.

Concern has also been expressed by Big Brother Watch that, although the police may believe that the deployment of the system is overt and well publicised, the already prevalent signs and advertisements in the busy central London areas where it is being deployed could mean that people may not notice, thereby allowing the police to blur the line between overt and covert policing.  It has also been pointed-out by privacy groups that the deployment involves an unmarked van and plainclothes officers, which are normally associated with covert activity.

Doesn’t Work?

Big Brother Watch and Liberty are currently taking legal action against the use of live facial recognition in South Wales (the site of previous trials) and London, and ICO head Elizabeth Dunham is reported to have launched a formal investigation into how police forces use facial recognition technology (FRT) after high failure rates, misidentifications and worries about legality, bias, and privacy.

Serious questions have been raised about how effective current facial recognition systems are.  For  example, research by the University of Cardiff, which examined the use of the technology across a number of sporting and entertainment events in Cardiff for over a year, including the UEFA Champion’s League Final and the Autumn Rugby Internationals, found that for 68% of submissions made by police officers in the Identify mode, the image had too low a quality for the system to work. Also, the research found that the locate mode of the FRT system couldn’t correctly identify a person of interest for 76% of the time.

Google Not Convinced

Even Google (Cloud) has announced recently that it won’t be selling general-purpose AI-driven facial recognition technology until it is sure that any concerns over data protection and privacy have been addressed in law, and that the software is accurate.

Fooled With A Printed 3D Head!

The vulnerability of facial recognition software to errors and inaccuracy has been further exposed by a journalist, Thomas Brewster, from Forbes, who claimed that he was able to fool the facial recognition on four Android phones by using a model 3D head with his own face printed on it!

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For the retail businesses in the physical area of the trial, anything that may deter criminal activities like theft and violence and may also catch known criminals is likely to be a good thing.

Most businesses and members of the public would probably agree that CCTV systems have a real value in helping to deter criminal activity, locating and catching perpetrators, and providing evidence for arrests and trials.  There are, however, several concerns, particularly among freedom and privacy groups, about how just how facial recognition systems are being and will be used as part of policing e.g. overt or covert, issues of consent, possible wrongful arrest due to system inaccuracies, and the widening of the scope of its purpose from the police’s stated aims.  Issues of trust where our personal data is concerned are still a problem as are worries about a ‘big brother’ situation for many people, although the police, in this case, have been clear that it is just a limited trial that has been conducted as overtly as possible with the support of literature and posters / literature to make sure the public is informed.

Smart Botnet Detection Needed

Posted on by Andy Miller

For businesses to maintain an effective cyber defence, the ability to prevent, detect and stop smart botnets in real-time is now an important consideration.

What Is A Botnet?

A botnet is a term for multiple malicious mini-programs working together to take over large numbers of computers and digital devices for different purposes e.g. stealing data and / or launching attacks, or in the case of DDoS attacks, shutting down servers (and the websites on them) by bombarding them with requests (a flood).  Botnets also sap electricity and computing power as they work.

How Big Is The Problem?

According to DDoS protection provider Link11, DDoS attacks (launched using botnets) on e-commerce providers showed an increase of more than 70% on Black Friday compared with other days in November this year, and Cyber Monday attacks showed a massive increase of 109% compared with the November average. Botnets have also shown a move towards the Internet of Things (IoT).

Last year saw a huge growth in the use of botnets.  For example, Spamhaus figures showed that the number of command and control (C&C) servers used for managing IoT botnets more than doubled, going from 393 in 2016 to 943 in 2017.

The increase in the use of botnets has been driven by factors such as the availability to cyber criminals of very cheap and easy to operate rent-a-botnet services booter or stresser botnet services, and the proliferation of IoT device with sub-standard security that can be used in attacks. Cyber criminals also use various amplification techniques to increase the impact of their attacks.

Characteristics Of Botnets

The characteristics of botnets and how they are made can provide the key to detecting them and preventing them. For example:

  • Some have a long ‘dwell time’ (the time the malicious program sits on a device before it’s activated), and they need to communicate to work. Communication often involves the use of command and control servers. Disconnecting communications between bots and their botnet command and control servers has, therefore, been a way of stopping them.  New smart bots, which create peer-to-peer networks, can be more difficult to stop.
  • Botnets use processing power.  If suspicious processes that take up a lot of memory are spotted, and / or if devices appear to slow down, this can be an indicator that the device has been compromised and a botnet is awake and active.

Turned To Crypto-Mining

A recent security bulletin from Kaspersky Labs states that botnets are now increasingly being used to distribute illicit crypto-mining software, and that the number of unique users attacked by crypto-miners grew significantly in the first three months of 2018. The malware used for mining is designed to secretly reallocate an infected machine’s processing power to mine cryptocurrencies, with all the proceeds going to the attacker.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

With cyber-crime, prevention is better than cure, and being able to detect signs of attacks early is vitally important. Security commentators suggest a focus on security measures that prevent initial infection and lock-down unnecessary trust permissions. Businesses may also benefit from using security technologies that can detect, alert or block botnet activity in real-time, and by continually analysing network traffic and local system logs.

Inspecting devices and checking for any suspicious processes that appear to be taking up taking up a lot of memory may also be a way to detect botnets that have already slipped through the net and are active.