munity, about whether you’re trying
to solve a problem or define a new research area,” admits Brunskill. Many
successful projects are trying to solve
immediate societal problems, but researchers in the community are nonetheless convinced there are possibilities for serious long-term science.
“For example, I believe computer
scientists can lead the way in combin-
ing data- and model-centric methods to
design proactive plans that can mitigate
the spread of diseases or the shortages
of food and water following a disaster,”
Horvitz explains. “The idea is to use
computational models and data from
similar situations to make inferences
about actions that promise to have a
high expected value. Partial plans might
be generated proactively with the goals
of maximizing the survival of people
who have been injured or are trapped.
The details of such ‘contingency plans’
for transporting medications, food, and
water could be instantiated in real time
based on sensor data.”
In the meantime, the field’s lack of
definition suits many scientists just
fine. “Fundamental research in this
domain is about understanding the
ground realities,” says Subramanian,
who points out that in “the 1970s, you
“In computer science,
you don’t often have
the sense that
you’re in a noble
profession,”
says eric horvitz.
“this is an
interesting outlet for
passionate people.”
didn’t have specialties like architec-
ture or networking. You were trying to
get things done.”
“In computer science, you don’t
often have the sense that you’re in a
noble profession,” says Horvitz. “This
is an interesting outlet for passionate
people.”
Further Reading
Beshah, T. and Hill, S.
Mining road traffic accident data to
improve safety: role of road-related
factors on accident severity in Ethiopia,
Proceedings of AAAI Artificial Intelligence
for Development (AI-D’ 10), Stanford, CA,
March 22–24, 2010.
Brunskill, E. and Lesh, N.
Routing for rural health: optimizing
community health worker visit schedules,
Proceedings of AAAI Artificial Intelligence
for Development (AI-D’ 10), Stanford, CA,
March 22–24, 2010.
Leah hoffmann is a technology writer based in Brooklyn,
ny.
© 2011 aCM 0001-0782/11/05 $10.00
Cybersecurity
Microsoft Dismantles Rustock Botnet
Microsoft has shut down what a
spokesperson for the company’s
Digital Crimes Unit described
as a notorious botnet that was
sending some 30 billion junk
email messages each day. Botnets
typically consist of thousands
of compromised computers
remotely controlled for the
purpose of executing denial-of-service attacks, spreading
malware, or participating in
other nefarious activities. In the
case of rustock, which reportedly
consisted of hundreds of
thousands of infected computers
controlled by several command
servers, the main activity was to
send junk email.
rustock’s anonymous
operators used the botnet to
hawk low-cost pharmaceuticals,
urge recipients to participate
in fake lotteries, and otherwise
clutter inboxes with unsolicited
missives. following the
shutdown of the botnet in March,
email-monitoring agencies
reported a significant downturn
in junk email. as one example
of the message volume rustock
was capable of achieving, a single
rustock computer that Microsoft
researchers monitored leading
up to the botnet shutdown was
reportedly sending email at the
rate of 10,000 pieces per hour.
the shutdown strategy
involved a two-pronged
approach: a legal initiative
to seize the botnet’s control
servers and a technical initiative
to block the infected client
computers from establishing
connections to new command
servers. after an investigation by
Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit
and successful legal pleadings,
Microsoft’s operation b107
resulted in the simultaneous
seizure by the U.s. Marshals
service of servers at five hosting
providers in the U.s.
Microsoft worked on the
rustock initiative with several
organizations, including the
Dutch high tech Crime Unit,
to dismantle command servers
outside the U.s. and China’s
Computer emergency response
team to block the registration of
domains that rustock-infected
computers could have contacted
for future directives. Microsoft’s
Digital Crimes Unit is now
working with Internet service
providers to identify and cleanse
the computers infected with the
rustock malware.
“It is impressive that
Microsoft managed to get this
operation working so smoothly,”
says Johannes Ullrich, chief
research officer at the sans
Institute. according to Ullrich,
the initiative’s legal aspect shows
maturity about the process of
shutting down a botnet. “It’s no
longer a bunch of guys deciding
they don’t like a botnet and
taking technical measures to
shut it down,” Ullrich says.