Army of Botnets

The trend toward smaller botnets may be more dangerous than large botnets, in terms of large-scale attacks like distributed denials of service. We examine the possibility of “super-botnets,” networks of independent botnets that can be coordinated for attacks of unprecedented scale. For an adversary, super-botnets would also be extremely versatile and resistant to countermeasures. As such, superbotnets must be examined by the research community, so that defenses against this threat can be developed proactively. Our simulation results shed light on the feasibility and structure of super-botnets and some properties of their command-and-control mechanism. New forms of attack that super-botnets can launch are explored, and possible defenses against the threat of super-botnets are suggested.