what is Botnet?

                                     Botnet

A botnet is a number of Internet-connected devices, each of which is running one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack), steal data

The name comes from the two words of roBOT and NETwork. We should categorize botnet as a type of malware. However, I have allocated a full chapter for this due to its power how dangerous can it be. What you have to understand is that once you have a botnet affected computer, it’s called now a bot and it is under a third parties administration. You might think that you would be aware if your machine is affected.

However, I am here telling otherwise. The reality is there are millions of botnet affected computers, and other networking devices are out there, yet to identify any is very hard. As for the end-user, everything seems as it should be, and no issues with connecting to the internet, neither problems on the real PC, however, it might be already turned into a zombie also known as a bot.

                                Origin of Botnet 

 A botnet is so powerful that doesn’t necessarily require to be clicked on, but of course you can find those types of botnets too. The reality is that due to its malware type, Botnet can pick up from social networking sites, e-mails, free software downloads, youtube videos, free movie downloads. Similarly to Spyware, it can be obtained from many sources, and once your computer is affected, it can start to spread around to all your devices that might be on the same network as your modified device. For example, if you have a computer, a laptop, an X-Box, and a mobile phone on your home network and one of them is affected, believe me, all your devices will be affected. It can be self-spreader at some point, however, first when you would download a trusted free software from an untrusted source; it might contain a Botnet, that would be hidden under a Trojan type of virus. It might be in another form such as you receive a dodgy e-mail saying that you have been chosen and won x amount of money, so you must click on the link to claim your winning. Again, while you would click on that link, you wouldn’t realize that the Trojan is already installing itself on your computer. Therefore it’s very dangerous and nearly impossible to know if your PC might be already a Zombie. Additionally can be an infected media, that could be a USB Stick, or nowadays even cheap smartphones bought from China can contain Trojans that would spread around to other networking devices and create a robot network.