Click (TV Programme) - Botnet Controversy

Botnet Controversy

In 2009 the show and the BBC produced some controversy when it aired a special episode highlighting the dangers of botnets and how easy it was to get caught in one. The show bought control of a botnet of some 22,000 infected computers (for "a few thousand dollars") from a Russian hacker, and used it to send spam to an email address set up for the experiment and to perform a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on a website setup by Prev-X (an internet security company that provided technical support for the show). After the programme was made the computers on the botnet were sent a piece of software to remove the malware and a warning was sent to them telling the users what had happened and that they were vulnerable.

The response was mixed with the show receiving many emails both for and against the programme along with some negative press. The BBC was criticized by some legal consulting organizations as well as computer security companies. Computer security expert and senior technology consultant at Sophos, Graham Cluley, asked in his blog whether the BBC was breaking the Computer Misuse Act - which makes an offense in the UK to access or modify a third-party computer without the owner's consent. However internet security commentator Melih Abdulhayoğlu, founder of international computer security company Comodo Group, made a video in support of the BBC. Click rebutted criticisms by stating in its Twitter posts that:

"We would not put out a show like this one without having taken legal advice." —BBC Click Team, from Twitter