What is a Botnet?
A large network of computers controlled by malicious software (malware) that can be used to perform attacks and harvest credentials. It is one of the most pervasive threats in cybersecurity today and can grow to occupy millions of devices worldwide.
Malicious actors use botnets to steal sensitive information, execute DDoS attacks, and even profit from internet-facing services by exploiting their computational power. While they have been around since the early days of the internet, recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are enabling more sophisticated bots and making them harder to detect.
Infection: Threat actors infect devices with specialized malware, either via phishing or exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities or weak IoT passwords. Once compromised, the malware connects to a command-and-control (C&C) infrastructure that the attacker controls. From here, they can send instructions to all infected devices simultaneously.
The first generation of botnets operated on a client-server model, where one C&C server controls the entire network. More advanced bots use peer-to-peer (P2P) communication models where each device acts as both a client and a server. This provides extreme resilience but slows down the delivery of instructions compared to centralized models.
Recognizing the early warning signs of botnet infection can help organizations take action to prevent an attack. These include unexplained performance issues like slower-than-normal application response times or excessive data usage, as the bot malware can use up CPU and memory to perform background tasks such as collecting or transmitting data.