In the case of Koobface, the command and control servers that orchestrated these attacks ultimately gave them away.

FORBES: Social Media Brings a New Wave of Threats, Part 2

Sourcefire also provides realtime feeds of known malicious hosts and command and control servers so beaconing can be blocked.

FORBES: Security Intelligence Enters Mainstream

Their sensors record network traffic and use a feed of data about threat sources associated with command and control servers.

FORBES: Beaconing detection heats up

They were given access to the command and control servers of Flame.

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Once injected, the malware would contact one of the many command and control servers around the world and download additional modules as needed.

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One day, while exploring open directories on one of the command and control servers I noticed that there were files in a directory that was normally empty.

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Internet security firm FireEye has spotted some 450, 000 infected computers from the Srizbi botnet - alleged to account for as much as half of all the spam on Earth - trying to "phone home" and reach their command and control servers.

BBC: Spam on rise after brief reprieve

This masquerade ended when apps seeded with BadNews got a prompt from one of three command and control servers, then it started pushing out and installing a more malicious programme called AlphaSMS. This steals credit by sending text messages to premium rate numbers.

BBC: Russian BadNews bug found in Android app store

Damballa discovered the botnet in March and has been tracking its communication with command-and-control servers around the world.

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