WHAT IS A BOTNET?
Malicious software and Cyber-attacks are frequently making headlines in today's digital environment. Anyone who uses a computer for any purpose is prone to become a victim of a cyber-attack. There are various sorts of cyber-attacks ranging from phishing to password attacks. In this article, we will look into one such attack that is known as a botnet.
Without even your knowledge, your computer can become infected with malware creating a botnets. It is a short form for robots and networks that cyber criminals usually use to inject Trojans into your system to breach the security of several users’ computers. A botnet refers to a network of hijacked interconnected devices that are installed with malicious codes known as malware. The infected devices from such an attack are known as a bot. The hijack criminal known as port Heidegger remotely controls them. These bots are used to automate large-scale attacks including data theft, server failure, malware propagation, and denial of service attacks.
This malware begrudgingly takes control of each computer and organizes all of the infected machines into a network of bots that the cyber-criminal can remotely manage the infected system and may act completely normal so that the user is not at all aware of the attack.
WHERE CAN A BOTNET BE FOUND ON THE COMPUTER?
How will you detect if your computer has been compromised as a botnet?
A botnet does not come with a prior warning indication as all other viruses. It can even be a smartphone intervention. Most often, the cyber-criminal seeks to infect and control millions of computers simultaneously so that they can act as the army of a large bot network. These botnets are capable of implementing various cyber-crimes. In such cases, cybercriminals hope on establishing a large network of affected machines and then sell access to a computer system to other criminals either on a part rental basis or as an outright complete access sale.
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING A PART OF BOTNET?
The consequences of being part of a botnet can be very serious as the risk is very high. Firstly, it is a non-friendly computer hacking that is purposely done to cause damage to another party. Some of the important risks in engaging in botnets include:
1. high internet bills
2. slow and unstable computer performance
3. Potential legal implications (if your computer is compromised)
4. Stolen personal data (which can be used in blackmail or identity theft)
MOST COMMON TYPES OF BOTNET ATTACKS
While there are several ways you can become a victim of a botnet attack, let's take a look at some of the famous botanic attacks:
1. The first one is the Mirai botnet which is a malicious program designed to attack vulnerable IoT devices and infect them to form a network of bots that on command perform basic and medium-level denial of service attacks.
2. Then we have the Zeus botnet- it is specifically designed for attacking the system for bank-related information and data.
HOW DOES ONE BECOME A VICTIM OF A BOTNET ATTACK AND HOW TO SAVE YOURSELF FROM BEING ONE?
Becoming a victim of a botnet attack is all too easy. A common source of infection is downloading files from an unknown site or file-sharing. Even social media sites and apps can contain malware that can turn your computer into a bot high-risk computer. During the preparation of a botnet network, the first step involves preparing the botnet army. After that, the connection between the botnet army and the control server is established and, in the end, the launching of the attack is done by the bot order. Let's understand through a basic illustration, firstly we have a bot order that initiates the attack according to the control server commands. The devices that are infected with the malware programs begin to attack the infected system. It is very important to understand some details regarding the preparation of the botnet army.
1. The first step is known as the prepping of the botnet army- it involves creating a botnet to infect as many connected devices as possible. This ensures that there are enough bots to carry out the attack. This way it creates bots either by exploiting the security gaps in the software or websites or using phishing attacks.
2. The next step we have is establishing the connection. Once the bot army hacks the device as per the previous step, it infects the system with the specific malware that connects the device back to the control bottom server. A bot holder uses command programming to drive the bot's actions.
3. The last step is known as launching the attack where once infected, a bot allows access to admin-level operations like gathering and stealing data, reading, and rewriting the system data, and monitoring user activities performing denial of service attacks including other cyber-crimes.
4. Let’s take a look at the important architecture which is known as the client-server model. The client-server model is a traditional model that operates with the help of a command-and-control server and communication protocols like IRC. When the bot order issues a command to the server it is then relayed to the client to perform malicious actions with the help of the peer-to-peer model. Here controlling the infected bots involves a peer-to-peer network that relies on a decentralized approach where the bots are topologically interconnected and acts as both CNC servers, that is the server and the client. Today, hackers adopt this approach to avoid detection and single-point failure in the end.
With the computers that are incorporated with outdated internet security software or even non eat all, you can limit the risks by always verifying the site or app that you usually use for downloading stuff and ensuring it is from a safe and secure source. However, the best form of protection is installing effective anti-malware software to get rid of these online malicious threats. You must also remember to always ensure that your computer is equipped with the latest internet security software to prevent becoming part of a botnet and dealing with its repercussions of it.
Botnets have become a major threat to the security of any IT infrastructure.
As more devices come online everywhere, the potential for new and strong botnet malware have increased proportionally.
Hackers have evolved and scaled their attacks to match modern security systems.The text above is a summary, you can read the full article here.
Some industries already have hundreds, thousands of IoT devices in their organization and each one represents a risk that must be protected against different cyber threats as hackers catch the opportune entry points in IoT devices.
We also have a developing and keen market to instrument areas such as industrial manufacture and the consumer space with IoT, which offers huge benefits, but also increases the attack surface and options for bad factors to engage with.
Botnets are specifically challenging because they grow over time and new forms continuously evolve out.A botnet is a collection of hijacked computers that the attacker can handle.
An attacker utilizes a device's weakness, likewise an unprotected network port, to install malware that can then be utilized to hijack and handle the computer, or bot.What Exactly IoT botnet is?The attacker whether it is a single hacker or a collection of hackers or an arranged entity such as a hostile nation-state and then integrates the hijacked computers together to generate a botnet capable of launching immense attacks.
An IoT botnet especially targets IoT devices to produce the hijacked network but serves the same function as traditional botnets.Few Examples of botnet attacksThe world has already accomplished remarkable IoT botnet attacks.
Threat researchers at CenturyLink’s Black Lotus Labs currently found a new module of IoT botnet called TheMoon, which attacks vulnerabilities in routers within broadband networks.
In computer lingo, a denial of service attack is a cyber-attempt to cause a computer system or network resource to be unavailable to its target users by either temporarily or permanently blocking access to a host connected to the Internet or interfering with network data.
Some applications that attempt to cause a service condition are: BIND (advertiser reverse lookup), ICQ (Internet chat client), POP3 (Internet protocol controller), SMTP (type mail server), FTP (file transfer protocol), and telnet (telephone protocol).
A good security policy for preventing against what is called a DoS attack involves blocking the service application before it can take action and protecting the vulnerable system against attackers who may not know about a firewall or antivirus software.
Prevention, though, is still preferred over cure.
Many programs these days automatically update themselves when a new version of themselves is available.
Botnets are another form of attack that have become quite common over the years.
