Cybersecurity Lingo: What is a “botnet” ?

Cybersecurity Lingo: What is a “botnet” ?

A botnet is a group of computers bad guys have under their control, usually thousands or more.

Botnets are used to:

• Mine bitcoin (use the hacked person’s electricity)
• Attack other machines (they can’t be traced back to the attacker)
• Flood a website or other service with so much traffic it goes down (a DDoS)
• There are stories of botnets being use in child pornography

You do not know if your computer is part of a botnet, otherwise you’d have removed it! In cybersecurity this is a VERY important reason to lock down traffic both inside and outside your network: botnets need to communicate to be effective. You can shut down that channel of communication and effectively choke the botnet in your network.

#manageditservices #cybersecurity