Botnets in Cybersecurity

In this article we will look at what are botnets, life cycle of a botnet and different countermeasures against botnets.

What are Botnets?

Bot refers to an automated program for performing a task, often over a network. Botnet refers to a collection of bots. Botnets are often used to perform malicious activities like distributing spam and spread viruses to conduct Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. A botnet is a network of computers infected with a malicious program that allows cybercriminals to control the infected machines remotely without the users’ knowledge.

Watch this video to learn about botnets and DDoS attacks:

Botnet Lifecycle

The life cycle of a botnet is as shown below:

Countermeasures against Botnets

Countermeasures against becoming a part of botnet:

• Use antivirus and anti-spyware software and update them regularly
• Download an install OS related security patches
• Turn-on the firewall
• Disconnect Internet when not needed
• Download freeware only from trusted sites
• Take precautions immediately if the system gets infected

Suryateja Pericherla

Suryateja Pericherla, at present is a Research Scholar (full-time Ph.D.) in the Dept. of Computer Science & Systems Engineering at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. Previously worked as an Associate Professor in the Dept. of CSE at Vishnu Institute of Technology, India.

He has 11+ years of teaching experience and is an individual researcher whose research interests are Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, Computer Security, Network Security and Blockchain.

He is a member of professional societies like IEEE, ACM, CSI and ISCA. He published several research papers which are indexed by SCIE, WoS, Scopus, Springer and others.