Don't Allow Anybody To Manipulate Your Computer Device! – Stop Botnets With Semalt

A robot network or botnet is the group of zombie computers or bots that are controlled by spammers and manipulates multiple devices. Botnets are likely to be legitimate networks of computer devices that process same programs or the group of computers infected with viruses and malware. Once it is installed on your computer devices, mostly without the users' knowledge, your computer will become a zombie, drone or computer in no time. It will not work properly and will not resist the controls of the bot controllers. Frank Abagnale, the Semalt Customer Success Manager, explains that in such circumstances, the anti-malware programs or antivirus software have to be enabled as soon as possible.

Botnet Size

The botnets vary in complexity and size, some of them are large while the others are small. The large botnets have thousands of individual zombies, and the small botnets could have only a few hundreds of drones or zombies. Botnets were first discovered in July 2010, when FBI arrested a young Slovenian. He was blamed for spreading malicious things into thousands of computer devices. On an average, 12 million computers were infected with the botnets. There are different types of malicious bots, some of them can infect computer devices in the same way as viruses or malware.

Botnets are used in a variety of ways, some of which are described below:

Denial of Service Attacks:

Botnets are used to launch attacks on a particular computer device or network and disrupt services by hijacking the connections. Moreover, they consume your network's bandwidth and overload the system resources. The Denial of Service Attacks (DoS) is commonly used to destroy a competitor's site.

Spam and Traffic Monitoring:

The botnet is also used to infect a computer device's TCP/ IP protocol and applies its specific applications to it. Botnets are widely used in conjugation with several zombies and viruses and harvest the email addresses. They send a large amount of spam data and phishing emails to the victims. Typically, zombies and bots are used to trick the username and password of a user so that the botnet can control its functions and exploit it.

Keylogging

The encryption programs in your computers were designed to detect bots and prevent them from harvesting any type of information. It's very unfortunate that the botnets have been adapted to subvert the security and they install keylogger programs in the infected machines. Keyloggers help bots to control and filter the programs of a computer device, which are then used to hijack one's PayPal ID or credit card details.

Pay-Per-Click Abuses:

Botnets are also used to propagate and spread different types of viruses and botnets in a network. They trap the users in malicious activities and execute their computer devices as well as email IDs. If you click on a pay-per-click system, botnets may access your financial details. Zombies are widely used to manipulate a user's information to earn some money from its pay-per-click systems.