Botnets have become one of the biggest threats to security systems today. Their growing popularity among cybercriminals comes from their ability to infiltrate almost any internet-connected device, from DVR players to corporate mainframes.
Botnets are also becoming a larger part of cultural discussions around cyber security. Facebook’s fake ad controversy and the Twitter bot fiasco during the 2016 presidential election worry many politicians and citizens about the disruptive potential of botnets. Recently published studies from MIT have concluded that social media bots and automated accounts play a major role in spreading fake news.
The use of botnets to mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is a growing business for cyber criminals. It’s predicted the trend will continue, resulting in more computers infected with mining software and more digital wallets stolen.
Aside from being tools for influencing elections and mining cryptocurrencies, botnets are also dangerous to corporations and consumers because they’re used to deploy malware, initiate attacks on websites, steal personal information, and defraud advertisers.
It’s clear botnets are bad, but what are they exactly? And how can you protect your personal information and devices? Step one is understanding how bots work. Step two is taking preventative actions.
How Do Botnets Work?
To better understand how botnets function, consider that the name itself is a blending of the words “robot” and “network”. In a broad sense, that’s exactly what botnets are: a network of robots used to commit cyber crime. The cyber criminals controlling them are called botmasters or bot herders.
Size Matters
To build a botnet, botmasters need as many infected online devices or “bots” under their command as possible. The more bots connected, the bigger the botnet. The bigger the botnet, the bigger the impact. So size matters. The criminal’s ultimate goal is often financial gain, malware propagation, or just general disruption of the internet.
Imagine the following: You’ve enlisted ten of your friends to call the Department of Motor Vehicles at the same time on the same day. Aside from the deafening sounds of ringing phones and the scurrying of State employees, not much else would happen. Now, imagine you wrangled 100 of your friends, to do the same thing. The simultaneous influx of such a large number of signals, pings, and requests would overload the DMV’s phone system, likely shutting it down completely.
Cybercriminals use botnets to create a similar disruption on the internet. They command their infected bot army to overload a website to the point that it stops functioning and/or access is denied. Such an attack is called a denial of service or DDoS
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