What is Botnet? And More About It

Robots and networks join to form the term “botnet”. And below is an overview of botnets. For example, a network of computers running bots and achieved by a bot herder is known as a botnet.

A bot herder is a person responsible for supervising and maintaining the botnet. Bots are software programs that run automated scripts over a network.

Also sometimes known as a “botnet”, it is a collection of malware-infected computers managed by a single attacker, also known as a “bot-herder”. A bot is any specific machine that the bot herder controls.

The attacker can simultaneously control all the computers in their botnet to execute a coordinated illegal action from one central location. In addition, its size (many of them made up of millions) allows an attacker to perform extensive operations previously impossible with malware.

Because botnets are constantly under the control of a remote attacker, infected devices can instantly receive updates and change their behaviour. As a result, bot herders often can lease access to certain areas of their botnet.

Typical Botnet Behaviour Includes:

1. Spam – Although email is now considered an older attack vector, spambot networks are among the largest. They are often used to send large volumes of spam, usually containing malware.

For example, the daily communication capacity of the Cutwail botnet is up to 74 billion. They are also used to propagate bots to add more computers to the botnet.

2. DDoS attacks: These attacks take advantage of the botnet’s large size to flood a target network or server with requests, rendering it inaccessible to the users it designs for it. And DDoS attacks target organizations intending to extort money in exchange for stopping the attack or for personal or political reasons.

3. Financial breaches include deliberately creates to steal companies’ money and credit card data. For example, thanks to financial botnet attacks such as the ZeuS botnet, millions of dollars stoles directly from many companies quickly.

4. Targeted Raids – These are smaller botnets created to infiltrate a company’s high-value systems to gain access and further intrude into the network.

How Does The Botnet Work?

Botnets they design to expand, automate, and accelerate a hacker’s ability to carry out more severe attacks.

What a single hacker or even a small group of hackers can do on their local machine is limited. But for very little money and time, they can get a ton of more equipment for more productive activities.

A bot herder controls a group of hijacked devices with remote commands. A shepherd uses script programming to direct the bots’ following actions after they’ve put it together. The person assuming the command responsibilities may have created or leased the botnet.

Any malware-infected consumer device seized for use in the botnet is called a zombie computer or bot. Under the orders of the bot herder, these machines work without thinking. The primary stages of a botnet can summarize in the following steps:

1. A hacker exploits a weakness to infect users with malware.

2. Malware that can hijack a user’s device has infected the user’s device.

3. Hackers Distribute Hijacked Devices To Launch Attacks When Enabled