Hackers Implement Open Source Techniques

This is the conclusion presented by the representatives at McAfee's Avert Labs. McAfee's researchers have analyzed the improvement of malware techniques tied to the implementation of open source. Elaborating on this subject, McAfee's researchers have disclosed their conclusions that hackers have changed their strategies, becoming organized and assimilating tools and techniques from the open source developers, the increasing number of bots accentuating the integration of open source into malware creation.

"Over the last year and a half, we've noticed how bot development in particular has latched on to open-source tools and the open-source development model," said Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager with McAfee's Avert Labs.

The example on the table was the Agobot family of malware. McAfee's experts have warned that open source software and malware development are seamlessly integrated and that the creators of Agobot are using the open-source Concurrent Versions System (CVS) software for project management.

However McAfee's intention was not to discredit open source. "We think [open-source anti-virus products] are fine. They've never been something that was really in the same class as ours, but we've always been big supporters of open-source anti-virus," Marcus said.