Recent reports that Microsoft has won court approval to shut down a host of computers, responsible for more than 1.5 billion daily spam messages worldwide, is a welcome development. As a result of this ruling, Microsoft says that about 277 Internet domains, which were used to control the “Waledac” botnet (about 90,000 computers), would stop receiving orders from hackers to send out spam. Although, this particular botnet has been successfully shut down, thousands of computers are still infected globally. Therefore making the need to understand what a botnet is and how to tackle botnet attacks an important one for computer owners and Internet users.
What is a Botnet?
A botnet is short for robot and computer networks. It is defined as a network of computers that are compromised and controlled by software robots by a hacker. Usually the hacked computers are connected to the Internet and do not display any symptoms that would make their owners suspicious of its hijacked state.
How Botnet Works
Computers can be affected by visiting malicious Web pages or opening an email containing a virus attachments in familiar formats such as Word documents or PDF files. Once the attachment is opened, “a vulnerability in the application used to open the document will be exploited and a tiny piece of code will execute and then download a larger file from the rogue web site” to begin communication with a remote computer.
The next part of this article will look at the possible consequences of botnet attacks and how they can be dealt with. Stay tuned.
Talking Point
Have you ever been a victim of a botnet attack?