What is Botnet?
A botnet is a chain of connected computers coordinated to perform a task. Botnets can be used for both good and bad purposes. They are not just created to infect a single computer but are designed to infect thousands of devices. IRC bots were the first botnets directly built.
They are accountable for many Cyber Attacks, such as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service), spam attacks, click Fraud, and Keylogging. The botnet gains a foothold in each botnet slave, which communicates with the C&C servers, and the entire botnet carries out various attacks.
The primary targets of listed cyber attackers or threats are enterprises, government, military, or other infrastructural assets of a nation or its citizens. Click to explore about, Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security
Bot herders (the ones who perpetrate botnets as they control the hosts compromised from a remote location) often deploy botnets through a virus. Once the computers are infected, botnets communicate over the Internet, and then botnets have free access to modify personal information, attack other computers, and commit other crimes.
What are the benefits of Bots?
Bots are helpful in online businesses. They help create the required visibility of their websites over the internet. Whenever someone searches for any products or services, relevant results are reflected. How is this possible? The bots are behind this. Adding more, they also help improve the website's SEO. Crawler bots visit the pages and index them in the robots.txt website file.What are the demerits of Bots?
Bots can do lots of malicious activities like --
Stealing contents like a password.
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Damage to the host machine.
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Scrape the content and publish it elsewhere.
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Send spam or viruses to others.
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Bitcoin Mining.
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How to adopt Botnets?
Botnets are good and bad; positive adoption helps the online business by creating a robots.txt file and letting the bot work behind it, improves SEO and uses it for security checks. For destructive purposes, they can be used for DDoS attacks, spreading viruses, or earning money through illegal botnets' work. Integral Parts of Botnets Include -
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Command and Control server(C&C)
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Bot
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Botmasters / Herders
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Sniffing and scanning module
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Downloading
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Update module
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Peer list
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Distribution module
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Targets
What are the various types of Botnets?
Botnets are categorized into four groups --
HTTP botnet
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P2P botnet
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IRC (Internet Relay Chat) botnet
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Hybrid botnet (the result of all types of Botnet Structures)
How do Botnets Communicate and Work?
The fundamental characteristic of a Botnet is the ability to receive updated instructions(commands) from the bot herder. The ability to communicate with each bot in the network enables the attacker to change the attack vectors, change the targeted IP, terminate an attack, and take other customized actions.
Botnet designs vary, but the control structures can be divided into two general categories: the client/server botnet model and the peer-to-peer botnet model.
Attacks can originate internally due to malicious intent or negligent actions or externally by malware, target attacks, and APT. Click to explore about, Anomaly Detection for Cyber Network Security
Botnets use different communication protocols, but most of them establish communication with their C&Cs( Command and Control Server) using either IRC (Internet Relay Chat) or HTTP( Hypertext Transfer) protocols. The benefits of using IRC communication are easy automation using scripts and readily available IRC servers, which is why this protocol is best for botnet creation and deployment.
An IRC client is installed on the compromised computer during infection by the botnet malware, which in turn helps establish communication between the IRC server on the C&C. But now it's not the best way to communicate, as IRC packets have often raised red flags, and even many admins block IRC packets in their firewalls. HTTP is the firewall-friendly option used in botnet communication. It is another communication protocol for botnets. Zeus is the most dangerous botnet that communicates via HTTP.
How to Detect Botnets?
Botnets are challenging to detect, as they use only small amounts of computing resources that prevent them from detection. Also, more complicated botnets are designed in such a way that they update their behaviour to thwart detection by Cybersecurity software. But still, there is some sign that helps in detecting botnets -
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When a computer starts acting strangely and runs slow as compared to before.
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Gives error messages.
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The fan suddenly starts up when the system is idle.
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If the virus scanner sounds the alarm.
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Check for Task Manager as it may offer some clues.
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Unexpected pop-ups (as a result of click fraud activity).
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There was suddenly increased traffic, particularly on Port 6667 (used for IRC), Port 25, and Port 1080 (used by proxy servers).
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Problems with Internet access.
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What are the various Botnet Prevention Techniques?
Computers are infected by botnets, either by worms or viruses that install the bot or when someone visits a malicious or non-trusted website that exploits a vulnerability in the browser and installs the bot.
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Update operating system.
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Avoid email attachments from suspicious or unknown sources.
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Avoid downloads from P2P and file-sharing networks.
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Don’t click on suspicious links.
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Get Antivirus Software.
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Disable unused ports.
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Create secure passwords.
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Periodic system wipe/restore.
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Implement good ingress and egress filtering practices.
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Take care of third-party applications and access requests.
Top 3 Anti-Botnet Tools
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Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS).
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Rootkit detection packages.
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Network sniffers for detection/prevention.
To sum up, a botnet is a collection or chain of computers compromised by malware that come under the control of a malicious actor, the controller, also known as a botmaster or herder. It severely affects someone's business and does many malicious activities without being detected. To gain more knowledge, read our content.
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