BotNet News

A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices – PCs, servers, smartphones or IoT gadgets – infected with malware and under the control of an attacker. These are used for malicious activities like stealing sensitive information, running distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) and distributing spam emails. They’re often hidden from the device owners.

Hackers use various techniques to install botnet software on the devices they want to infect, such as exploitation of known vulnerabilities in operating systems and web applications. They then spread the malware via phishing emails, drive-by downloads and malicious websites. The goal is to infect as many devices as possible in the fastest time.

Once the device is infected, the malware stays dormant and waits for commands from a command-and-control server. This is a central hub that communicates with bots and controls the overall operation of the network. The person or group behind the operation is called a botmaster.

While centralized C&C botnets are still common, they’re becoming less effective as security agencies take measures to shut them down. As a result, attackers are switching to decentralized P2P botnet models. P2P botnets have no single point of failure and are difficult to take down.

Some examples of well-known botnets are Mirai — which hacked IoT devices like routers and cameras to launch DDoS attacks — and ZeroAccess — a trojan that infected Windows computers for cryptojacking and fraudulent ad clicking. The good news is that most cyber-risk mitigation, fraud prevention and cybersecurity solutions include bot detection and protection capabilities as part of their suite of tools.