Are mobile botnets a possible threat? The case of SlowBot Net

In virtue of the large-scale diffusion of smartphones and tablets, a possible exploitation of such devices to execute cyber-attacks should be evaluated. This scenario is rarely considered by cyber-criminals, since mobile devices commonly represent a target of attacks, instead of an exploitable resou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computers & security 2016-05, Vol.58, p.268-283
Main Authors: Farina, Paolo, Cambiaso, Enrico, Papaleo, Gianluca, Aiello, Maurizio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agents (artificial intelligence)
Android
Computer information security
Cybercrime
Denial of service
Denial of service attacks
Diffusion
Distributed attacks
Internet
LOIC
Mobile communication systems
Network security
Offensive security
Portable computers
Slow DoS attack
Smartphone
Smartphones
Spacecraft
Studies
Tablet computers
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Summary:In virtue of the large-scale diffusion of smartphones and tablets, a possible exploitation of such devices to execute cyber-attacks should be evaluated. This scenario is rarely considered by cyber-criminals, since mobile devices commonly represent a target of attacks, instead of an exploitable resource. In this paper we analyze the possibility to execute distributed denial of service attacks from mobile phones. We introduce SlowBot Net, a botnet infrastructure designed to involve mobile agents, and we compare it with Low-Orbit Ion Cannon (also called LOIC), a well-known botnet adopted by cyber-hacktivists on the Internet. Results prove that SlowBot Net requires fewer resources to the attacker and it is effectively deployable on mobile nodes. Since research related to mobile botnets is still immature, the proposed work should be considered a valuable resource enriching the cyber-security field.
ISSN:0167-4048
1872-6208
DOI:10.1016/j.cose.2016.02.005