On the rise

Botnets are a threat to almost any organization. When one knows about a threat and how that threat works, s/he will be able to better defend against the threat. Although much has been written on various aspects of botnets, the authors focus this paper on exploring the ease of recruiting bots, operating a botnet, and also discuss the threats of such botnets. The Rise of the Machines It isn’t difficult to find news reports discussing large scale Denial of Service attacks. Networks of several thousand compromised computers can cripple the most prepared networks and they intently spread fear to the heart of the most battle-hardened system administrator. Furthermore, with the expansion of the internet the number of potential victims grows greater every day. This paper is designed to help educate network adminstrators and like professionals on the threat of botnets and how they work. It examines Internet Relay Chat (IRC), botnet uses, bot roles, propagation, recruitement, retention, command and control methods, and briefly touch on defense methods. Awareness is the first step in overcoming a problem or threat.