The concept of Zombies has haunted mankind since the dawn of civilization.
Zombies are generally corpses brought back from the dead by supernatural means, and are under someone’s direct control.
Zombies are not the stuff of Hollywood storyline, voodoo witchcraft or black magic anymore. The Night of the Living Dead has come alive in the world of Information Technology. Zombies are no longer fiction; they have come to haunt the tech savvy lives of the 21st century.
Online criminals are harvesting on the concepts of the Zombies. They can use viruses to take control of a large numbers of computers over a period of time, and then turn them into "Zombies" that can work together as a powerful army of infested system called "Bots" to perform malicious activities. The term "Botnet" is used to refer to any group of such bots.
Botnet is a term for a collection of software robots, or bots, which run autonomously and automatically. They run on groups of "Zombie" computers controlled remotely. This can also refer to the network of computers using distributed computing software.
Zombies are generally corpses brought back from the dead by supernatural means, and are under someone’s direct control.
Zombies are not the stuff of Hollywood storyline, voodoo witchcraft or black magic anymore. The Night of the Living Dead has come alive in the world of Information Technology. Zombies are no longer fiction; they have come to haunt the tech savvy lives of the 21st century.
Online criminals are harvesting on the concepts of the Zombies. They can use viruses to take control of a large numbers of computers over a period of time, and then turn them into "Zombies" that can work together as a powerful army of infested system called "Bots" to perform malicious activities. The term "Botnet" is used to refer to any group of such bots.
Botnet is a term for a collection of software robots, or bots, which run autonomously and automatically. They run on groups of "Zombie" computers controlled remotely. This can also refer to the network of computers using distributed computing software.
The viruses or Malwares that turn a system into a Zombie and make it a part of the global network of botnets do not usually harm the infested system. The reason is Zombie computers must be up and running and connected to the Internet for the botnets to be active so that they can be used for some more devastating activities.
With Conficker around, the Storm of 2008, Rustock, Srizbi and many more, they have become a serious threat on the Internet. Now these attacks are more targetted and usually financial gain is the motive behind them. Gone are the days when DDoS was in the menu. Offlate, Malware Activity is aiding a million $ fraud industry. Botnets comprising of Millions of individual "Zombie" computers (BOTS) or more, can distribute spam, transmit viruses, attack other computers or servers, carry out DDoS as part of Hactivism and commit various other sinister crimes.
