Patent ID: 8555388

Claim:
A system, comprising: a processor configured to: monitor network traffic to identify suspicious network traffic, wherein the monitored network traffic includes HTTP traffic, IRC traffic, and unclassified application traffic; monitor behavior indicated in the network traffic to identify malware, wherein the monitored behaviors that indicate potential malware include one or more of the following: connecting to a non-standard HTTP port for HTTP traffic, visiting a non-existent domain, downloading executable files with non-standard executable file extensions, performing a DNS query for an email server, communicating using HTTP header with a shorter than common length, communicating using a post method in HTTP traffic, connecting to a non-standard IRC port for IRC traffic, and communicating unclassified traffic over an HTTP port; and detect a bot based on a heuristic analysis of the suspicious network traffic behavior, wherein the suspicious network traffic behavior includes command and control traffic associated with a bot master; and a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.