A term botnet is a combination of the words robot and
network, which is also
known as the zombie network. Botnet is a gathering of Internet connected programs that
communicate with other similar programs. It can affect many features that are
connected with Internet such as Internet Relay Chat, spam mails and service
attacks. There are legal botnet, where IRC bots are linked and set channel
modes on other bots for users to keep the channels free from unwanted users,
while there are many illegal ones including distributed denial of service
attacks, adware, spyware, spam mails, click fraud, and scareware.
Computers become part of zombie network through
malwares that are unexpectedly installed by users or automatically installed
through a security network’s back door. The malicious software leaves specified
networking ports open, allowing computer access by outside users. They run
similar types of malware that might be multiple networks operated by different
criminal entities.
One of the best defenses from such threats is to run
anti-virus and anti-spyware software on our computers. It is also important to
keep those programs updated since the malware initiators constantly update and
revise their attacks to avoid detection and bypass anti-virus programs. Users also need to make sure that they keep their operating system and applications patched against known vulnerabilities and use a personal firewall program to shield their computers from unauthorized access.
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