Malware poses one of the major threats to all currently operated computer systems. The scale of the problem becomes obvious by looking at the global economic loss caused by different kinds of malware, which is estimated to be more than US$ 10 billion every year. Botnets, a special kind of malware, are used to reap economic gains by criminals as well as for politically motivated activities. In contrast to other kinds of malware, botnets utilize a hidden communication channel to receive commands from their operator and communicate their current status. The ability to execute almost arbitrary commands on the infected machines makes botnets a general-purpose tool to perform malicious cyber-activities. Botnets provides a comprehensive analysis of the topic, and comprises both technical and non-technical sections written by leading cybersecurity experts. The non-technical section addresses how botnet infrastructure could be exploited for national security and cybercrime purposes. It approaches the subject as a public policy issue and analyzes the phenomenon of botnets from national security, law enforcement and regulatory policy perspectives, and makes recommendations for policy-makers on different public policies, highlighting the need for international response mechanisms. The technical section provides insight into current botnet techniques and discusses state-of-the-art countermeasures to combat the botnet threat in detail. It includes new detection methods as well as different approaches to actively compromise running botnets.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th Security Research Conference, Future Security 2012, held in Bonn, Germany, in September 2012. The 78 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 137 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on supply chain and critical infrastructure protection; security situational awareness; crisis management; security for critical infrastructure and urban areas; sensor technology; social, psychological and political aspects; cyber defense and information security; maritime and border security; detection of hazardous materials; food chain security; aviation security; ergonomic aspects.

This is the first book in English reviewing and updating the geology of the whole Apennines, one of the recent most uplifted mountains in the world. The Apennines are the place from which Steno (1669) first stated the principles of geology. The Apennines also represent amongst others, the finding/testing sites of processes and products like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, olistostromes and melanges (argille scagliose), salinity crisis, geothermal fluids, thrust-top basins, and turbidites (first represented in a famous Leonardo's painting). As such, the Apennines are a testing and learning ground readily accessible and rich of any type of field data. A growing literature is available most of which is not published in widely available journals. The objective of the book is to provide a synthesis of current data and ideas on the Apennines, for the most part simply written and suitable for an international audience. However, sufficient details and in-depth analyses of the various complex settings have been presented to make this material useful to professional scholars and to students of senior university courses.