06 Sep Should You Worry About Botnets?

Botnets and Their Danger to You

Not all technology was designed for malicious purposes in the realm of cybersecurity, but even with the best intentions, things can go wrong. A botnet is a perfect example of this, a process used for malicious attacks in the digital realm.

Botnets aren’t an illegal entity, they’re actually used for many fundamental internet processes like managing networks and chat rooms. When used together, a botnet is a string of systems connected to complete a certain task, often repetitive or mundane ones – but you can see why this would be used for malicious reasons. 

What happens?

In the case of a bad botnet, “spiders” (a type of virus) seek out potential vectors – PC systems or otherwise – to add to their network of hacked systems or bots. This is accomplished via malware or clicking a dangerous link. In other cases, trojan horse software is downloaded and executed. What the system is used for will vary based on the attack, but needless to say it’s never good.

Once a botnet successfully targets a system, a range of things can occur:

• Spam Assault – Bots are traditionally used to lobby millions of junk messages at users all across the world.
• DDoS Attacks – Direct denial of service attacks are another common symptom of botnets, whereby a group of systems overloads targeted servers with unwanted traffic.
• Virus Distribution – Throwing viruses en masse at various networks and systems is an efficient way to launch malware with deadly results. 

The result of these attacks is both damaging and costly to users and businesses. Private information is stolen, performance is slowed and systems are outright unusable until the zombie computer is “cured.”

What if I’m infected?

The good news is that antivirus software is efficient at snuffing out botnets. So, the best form of protection is prevention, and there are a few simple things you can do.

• Never click strange or unfamiliar links, especially if they arrive from chat messages, email, or other forms of social media. Check the sender name too.
• Keep software updated requiring an internet connection. Malicious botnets rely on outdated software to infect systems.
• As a business, separate your networks into various WLANs (network segmentation) which helps isolate potential threats.
• Only trust certain users with serious admin access to important systems. This prevents an intrusion from gaining access to critical information and access to other systems if a user is compromised.
• Set up network monitoring to identify third-party threats for better traffic analyzation. 

While botnets are used to assist industries with mundane and repetitive tasks, they can also be deployed for malicious intent. Stay up to speed on zombie botnets and take proper precautions to protect your system.

You can contact as Bytagig for more information about botnets.