(roBOT NETwork) Also called a "zombie army," a botnet is a large number of compromised computers that are used to create and send spam or viruses or flood a network with messages as a denial of service attack. The computer is compromised via a Trojan that often works by opening an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel that waits for commands from the person in control of the botnet. There is a thriving botnet business selling lists of compromised computers to hackers and spammers. See denial of service attack, spambot, zombie and spam 2.0.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Second iPhone worm behaves like botnet
- That'll teach them what happens to jailbreakers!This only hits those who deliberately climbed the fence and ventured into the dangerous would outside Apples walled garden.Victims of this have nothing on Apple for this. The vulnerability was introduced by their own incompetent actions, but knowingly non-sanctioned by Apple.The learning: You better...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-23
- Second iPhone worm behaves like botnet
- A second iPhone exploit has been identified by security vendor F-Secure, which claims the new worm has botnet capability and is more threatening than its predecessor. A second iPhone exploit has been identified by security vendor F-Secure, which claims the new worm has botnet capability and is more threatening...
- News items 2009-11-23
- Windows 7's default UAC bypassed by 8 out of 10 malware samples
- RE: Windows 7's default UAC bypassed by 8 out of 10 malware samplesyawnWho can I trust *now*....Even Ed Bott said '7' was more secure!The Windows Infect Season is not over yet.. Nothing's changed.... That people even USE Windows these days is quite remarkable.... It must be the power of habit...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-05
- Spooky Halloween - scareware or crimeware?
- With all the "spooky" cybercrime trends taking place on a monthly basis, such as the death of CAPTCHA, the suspicious idleness of the Conficker botnet, the clear presence of government-tolerated and upcoming government-sponsored botnets, the inevitable migration from using malicious infrastructure to entirely relying on legitimate one, followed by the...
- Blog posts 2009-10-29
- News to know: L.A. goes Google; AMD-Galleon; Cisco-ScanSafe; Ubuntu; Amazon RDS
- Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET's around-the-Web tech coverage.: Larry Dignan: WSJ: AMD's former CEO was a Galleon tipster Sam Diaz: Cisco continues its buying spree with...
- Blog posts 2009-10-28
- Facebook password-reset spam is Bredolab botnet attack
- For haven sake ...Could we be a little bit more specific."...password-reset messages to trick PC users into downloading a dangerous piece of malware."Do "PC" means Windows? I'm guessing because I see the words "PC" and "malware" in the same sentence, oh, and your screen shot is Windows. ...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-27
- Facebook password-reset spam is Bredolab botnet attack
- Virus hunters are raising the alarm for a large-scale spam attack that uses fake Facebook password-reset messages to trick PC users into downloading a dangerous piece of malware. by Ryan Naraine
- Blog posts 2009-10-27
- Koobface October 2009 Youtube spoof (Social engineering tactics of the Koobface botnet)
- Koobface October 2009 Youtube spoofYou might want to check out the 3rd image for the article "Koobface October 2009 Youtube spoof". There is some words in it that some might not want to see.
- Discussion threads 2009-10-22
- Global cyberwar: Installed in your PC at home, the office and government
- Personal Accountabilityas long as people can think and act as though their conduct on the internet is shrouded in anonomity.Until each of us takes full responsibility for what we do and operates with the knowledge that our 'unique' verifiable identities can be obtained readily, the carnage will continue and broaden.A...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-21
- Fake 'Conficker.B Infection Alert' spam campaign drops scareware
- An ongoing spam campaign is once again attempting to impersonate Microsoft's security team -- the same campaign was first seen in April -- by mass mailing Conficker.B Infection Alerts (install.zip), which upon execution drop a sample of the Antivirus Pro 2010 scareware. Whereas the theme remains the...
- Blog posts 2009-10-19
- Podcast: Inside the OWA attacks, Patch Tuesday wrap-up
- In this podcast with Threatpost co-editor Dennis Fisher, I discuss the recent Outlook Web Access phishing attacks, the Microsoft/Adobe patchapalooza and the true extent of the botnet/malware epidemic. Listen here. by Ryan Naraine
- Blog posts 2009-10-16
- Does software piracy lead to higher malware infection rates?
- Yes it does, at least according to a recently released report by the Business Software Alliance BSA which basically correlates data on the known piracy rates for particular countries and their malware infection rates, using public sources. The rationale behind their claims is fairly simple - users...
- Blog posts 2009-10-14
- New Koobface campaign spoofs Adobe's Flash updater
- Earlier this week, the botnet masters behind the most efficient social engineering driven botnet, Koobface, launched a new campaign currently spreading across Facebook with a new template spoofing Adobe's Flash updater embedded within a fake Youtube page. The malware campaign is relying on compromised legitimate web sites,...
- Blog posts 2009-10-14
- Social engineering tactics of the Koobface botnet
- The gang behind the Koobface botnet is periodically updating the template it relies on for infecting new years. Here are some of the most popular ones introduced by the gang throughout the year. by Dancho Danchev
- Image galleries 2009-10-14
- TechGuard keeps spam and botnets at bay with one-click, enterprise-level security for SMBs, SOHOs
- One of the most difficult things for a small or medium business to do is set up a security scheme that's effective, affordable and intelligible to the average employee. Chesterfield, Mo. and Baltimore, Md.-based TechGuard is attempting to address that problem by bringing its enterprise and government-level...
- Blog posts 2009-10-13
- Click fraud facilitating Bahama botnet steals ad revenue from Google
- Google or not to Googlegoogle.ca has an IP address of 64.233.169.147 which has the first octet of the botnet addresses. Actually most [all?] the addresses I pinged were coming from the 64.233.169.0 network (which according to DNSStuff is ownerd by Google. The 74.125.155.0 network is another set of Google addresses.RE:...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-09
- News to know: Windows 7; IBM; Sony; Apple
- Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET's around-the-Web tech coverage. Ed Bott: Measuring Windows 7 performance Dancho Danchev: Click fraud facilitating Bahama botnet steals ad revenue from Google ...
- Blog posts 2009-10-09
- Click fraud facilitating Bahama botnet steals ad revenue from Google
- Originally exposed as a botnet redirecting and monetizing hijacked traffic to over 200,000 parked domains primarily located in the Bahamas, researchers from ClickForensics have recently found evidence on active DNS hijacking of Google properties allowing cybercriminals to steal revenue from Google by pulling search results and displaying them on a...
- Blog posts 2009-10-08
- The case of the fake money-mules: Inside the URLZone Trojan network
- Security researchers tracking the URL Zone malware/botnet have stumbled upon a new tactic being used by cyber-criminals to hide information on the money mules being used to transfer stolen funds from compromised online bank accounts. by Ryan Naraine
- Blog posts 2009-10-05
- News to know: Microsoft, ICANN, Best Buy, RIM, mobile apps, Zimbra
- Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET's around-the-Web tech coverage. Richard Koman: Judge overturns $388m patent verdict against Microsoft CNET: Court reverses Microsoft patent-infringement rulin Sam...
- Blog posts 2009-10-01
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