SINCE 1828
botnet
noun
bot·net
| \ ˈbät-ˌnet
\
\
Definition of botnet
: a network of computers that have been linked together by malware : a network of bots (see bot entry 3 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
Examples of botnet in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
But the ads were never seen by a human being — instead, the defendants allegedly used a server farm and a botnet to simulate billions of visits to real pages. — Adi Robertson, The Verge, "Eight people charged with running a multimillion-dollar online ad scam," 27 Nov. 2018 In particular, prosecutors called out their assistance in the 2017 federal takeover of the Kelihos botnet. — Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica, "Mirai botnet creators praised for helping FBI, won’t serve prison time," 19 Sep. 2018 Twitter botnets are having to adapt their behavior in the wake of the platform’s crackdown. — Jon Porter, The Verge, "Botnets adapt in wake of Twitter crackdown," 19 Oct. 2018 Two weeks ago, a separate team of researchers reported UPnP flaws were exploited to spawn a 100,000-router botnet used to send spam and other types of malicious email. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "Mass router hack exposes millions of devices to potent NSA exploit," 29 Nov. 2018 Staffed by former prosecutors, the group adopted a novel legal strategy of obtaining secret court warrants that enabled it to seize computers and web domains affiliated with the botnets. — Elizabeth Dwoskin, The Seattle Times, "Microsoft CEO Nadella welcomes scrutiny that has roiled tech industry. Easy for him to say," 9 Oct. 2018 Researchers from Netlab 360, who reported the mass infection late last week, have dubbed the botnet BCMUPnP_Hunter. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "A 100,000-router botnet is feeding on a 5-year-old UPnP bug in Broadcom chips," 12 Nov. 2018 This automated system is supposed to watch out for brute-force entry attempts to your PC, botnet attacks, and threats to your sensitive information. — Ian Paul, PCWorld, "Bitdefender Total Security 2019 review: This AV suite builds a better autopilot," 13 Sep. 2018 To attack botnets, Microsoft would take its fight to courts, suing on the basis of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other laws and asking judges for permission to sever the networks’ command-and-control structures. — Matt O'brien, The Seattle Times, "Microsoft’s anti-hacking efforts make it an internet cop," 21 Aug. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'botnet.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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