SilverNet

SilverNet, created by the deh469 computer virus, was one of the earliest botnets and the first (possibly only) 'search botnet'. The botnet's creator, silveromega, is still considered one of the most dangerous computer programmers active on the internet.
The botnet was activated on August 14, 1996, and went undetected until 1997, when "silver", as its creator is affectionately known by both his enemies and supporters, released the purpose of the system. Silver had constructed a search engine capable of searching all of the infected computers, and made the system public. He justified his actions with 'freedom of information'.
SilverNet drew attention now, however. A still-anonymous computer hacker stole silver's source code and created a patch using a similar worm, mockingly dubbed deh470. It spread over SilverNet and neutralized the botnet. Silver did not release a figure of how many computers were infected, but the virus spread rapidly enough that in another year, 90% of the Internet of the time could have become infected.
Unlike other botnets, SilverNet was never used for spam email, instead focused on processing user requests and searching. Some have called this the most dangerous botnet of all time, due to the invasive nature of its searching.
In more recent years, silver created a voluntary network for programming/hacking tutorial searching known as 'OmegaNet', using much of the SilverNet code. However, OmegaNet overwrites the existing SilverNet patch (but does not spread between computers).

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu