botnet
noun
bot·net ˈbät-ˌnet 
: a network of computers that have been linked together by malware : a network of bots (see bot entry 1 sense 2b)
Criminals link hijacked personal computers together to form "botnets"—clusters of infected PCs that spammers can control from anywhere in the world.
Dave Mosher
Dave Mosher
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Separately, the attorney general said the Justice Department had disrupted a global botnet by the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU. Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2022 The botnet was available on the open internet, ostensibly as a proxy server from a provider named RSocks. Michael Kan, PCMAG, 17 June 2022 Putting it plainly, this botnet was, on average, 4,000 times stronger due to its use of virtual machines and servers. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 15 June 2022 Some of the components in the rootkit are identical to ones found in the malware family belonging to MyKings, a botnet used to deploy cryptominers that was documented in 2020 by security firm Sophos. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 26 July 2022 From the what-could-possibly-go-wrong file comes this: People hawking password-cracking software are targeting the hardware used in industrial-control facilities with malicious code that makes their systems part of a botnet, a researcher reported. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 15 July 2022 The target of the investigation, a botnet known as RSOCKS, has been dismantled as a result, the office said. Kristina Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 June 2022 This is the only way to prevent botnet attacks and reduce synthetic identity new application fraud, both of which are intensifying. Bob Legters, Forbes, 28 June 2022 Most of those attacks came from Internet-of-Things devices infected with the open source Mirai botnet malware and lower-volume UDP protocol attacks. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 28 Jan. 2022 See More
Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2022 The botnet was available on the open internet, ostensibly as a proxy server from a provider named RSocks. Michael Kan, PCMAG, 17 June 2022 Putting it plainly, this botnet was, on average, 4,000 times stronger due to its use of virtual machines and servers. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 15 June 2022 Some of the components in the rootkit are identical to ones found in the malware family belonging to MyKings, a botnet used to deploy cryptominers that was documented in 2020 by security firm Sophos. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 26 July 2022 From the what-could-possibly-go-wrong file comes this: People hawking password-cracking software are targeting the hardware used in industrial-control facilities with malicious code that makes their systems part of a botnet, a researcher reported. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 15 July 2022 The target of the investigation, a botnet known as RSOCKS, has been dismantled as a result, the office said. Kristina Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 June 2022 This is the only way to prevent botnet attacks and reduce synthetic identity new application fraud, both of which are intensifying. Bob Legters, Forbes, 28 June 2022 Most of those attacks came from Internet-of-Things devices infected with the open source Mirai botnet malware and lower-volume UDP protocol attacks. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 28 Jan. 2022 See More Word History
Etymology
bot entry 1 + net entry 1
First Known Use
2003, in the meaning defined above