Ironicly, botnet operators can not easily switch their nodes to solo mining. Even if UPnP is employed for firewall piercing, many users will likely notice 12 hours of disk activity as their node catches up to the block-chain.
Oh yea, on that note, so will the zombie's internet providers. Atleast if they are with ATT.. I received an interesting email from ATT;
IMPORTANT COMPUTER SAFETY NOTICE from AT&T Internet Services Security Center -“
IRC Traffic Detected”
Our investigation shows that the following IP was assigned to your log-on session at the indicated time and was using IRC connections
to a computer network which is possibly a Botnet.Date: (UTC) => Your IP:
2011-10-18 04:45:24 => My Business T1 IP
2011-10-17 04:23:13 => My Business T1 IP
2011-10-16 02:47:36 => My Business T1 IP
IRC Botnet infected systems commonly send or receive commands that can SPAM email, spread malicious software, and perpetrate identity theft.
IRC traffic on ports other than those normally used by IRC can be an indication of backdoor trojans or bots.
IRC Botnet infected systems commonly send or receive commands that can SPAM email, spread malicious software, and perpetrate identity theft.
IRC traffic on ports other than those normally used by IRC can be an indication of backdoor trojans or bots.
Although the activity is likely unintentional,
it is still in violation of AT&T's Acceptable Use Policy. To review the AT&T Acceptable Use Policy, go to:
http://www.corp.att.com/aup/ It was certainly news to me that they had a 'policy' against connecting to IRC servers on non default ports. The times they reference are in direct correlation to my firing up the Bitcoin Client.. ;p
I made sure to contact them on it none the less, because they do have a history of disabling accounts if they truely do suspect one of being 'zombiefied'. I did not mention Bitcoin or anything but basicly told them that unless they had something in their policy about what remote IRC ports I am allowed to connect to, to please not send me further messages about it. I'm an asshole when it comes to them people. I pay for a home connection and 2 businesses worth of internet and phone servicve with them. Total about 4 grand a month, so they can kiss my shiny, white ass....
But, it does make me wonder if they have jumped on the security bandwagon that has it in mind to flag Bitcoin related communications as infectious transmissions...? And, will they decide to block it? They certainly are more than capable with their NAT setup to do so.... The next release of Bitcoin will have to include a built in http proxy just to fuggin work if something like that were to happen. Something to think about.
And, also something for you agenda pushing Botnet fuckers to think about. I will be extremely pissed if because of your agenda you get 'Bitcoin' traffic in general banned..... Or is that your true goal!?!? hmmm *tinfoil hat feels warm*