botnet

bot·net | \ ˈbät-ˌnet

How to pronounce botnet (audio)

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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 At other points, Kaye allegedly rented out parts of its botnet to other hackers who used it for attacks on banks and gaming rivals. — Andy Greenberg, Wired, "Security News This Week: Facebook Finally Fixes Its Two-Factor Mess," 21 Dec. 2019 The Akamai researchers also point out that if botnet operators start automating the process of generating WS-Discovery DDoS attacks, the barrages will crop up even more. — Wired, "Clever New DDoS Attack Gets a Lot of Bang for a Hacker's Buck," 18 Sep. 2019 The malicious program, dubbed Mirai, then chains millions of these vulnerable devices together into a botnet—a network of infected computers. — Zeynep Tufekci, Scientific American, "Attack of the Zombie Baby Monitors," 1 Feb. 2019 Now even people with rudimentary levels of coding skill can assemble their own giant zombie botnets. — Zeynep Tufekci, Scientific American, "Attack of the Zombie Baby Monitors," 1 Feb. 2019 Today more than 50% of email is spam, but far more troubling issues have emerged — including denial of service attacks that can immobilize critical financial institutions and malicious botnets that can cripple essential infrastructure sectors. — Leonard Kleinrock, Twin Cities, "Leonard Kleinrock: 50 years ago, I helped invent the internet. How did it go so wrong?," 18 Nov. 2019 According to researcher Troy Mursch of the Bad Packets security intelligence service, attackers are using botnets to actively exploit vulnerable servers. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "High-severity vulnerability in vBulletin is being actively exploited," 25 Sep. 2019 IoT devices have been conscripted into massive botnets, compromised for nation state reconnaissance, hacked to mine cryptocurrency, and manipulated in assaults on power grids. — Wired, "It's Time for IoT Security's Next Big Step," 11 Sep. 2019 These more sophisticated botnet tactics have become necessary after Twitter started cracking down on the practice in February. — Jon Porter, The Verge, "Botnets adapt in wake of Twitter crackdown," 19 Oct. 2018

These 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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Last Updated

4 Jan 2020

Cite this Entry

“Botnet.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/botnet. Accessed 19 January 2020.

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