Botnets: Collections of thousands of computers owned by regular people and secretly controlled by cybercriminals.
Botnets can work by taking control of hundreds, or thousands, of individual computers. Cybercriminals can tell their botnet armies to install spyware like keystroke logging malware, and to report back sensitive information, like banking login passwords or credit card numbers.
Unfortunately, most owners with zombie computers don’t know that their systems are infected.
Botnets can also attack. In 2007 the Internet in Estonia was shut down due to denial-of-service attacks (trans: being overwhelmed by botnet contact), and Georgia was severely disabled by Russian botnets in 2008. Other than taking entire countries offline, botnets could disable news sources, transportation websites, or overpower other highly important web sites.
Luckily, avoiding botnets can be as simple as running Norton AntiVirus. Keep your computer updated and protected to avoid joining the zombie ranks.
