Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have laid the groundwork for an unprecedented simulation of a large-scale botnet after booting up 1 million Linux kernels as virtual machines. They now are waiting for completion of a new, faster and more capable supercomputer at the Livermore, Calif., lab, on which they hope to run 10 million kernels in a simulation of the open Internet — complete with Web and mail servers, as well as simulated users clicking on simulated emails, getting simulated infections, and joining a simulated botnet.
