botnet

[ bot-net ]

noun

, Computers.

1. a network of computers created by malware and controlled remotely, without the knowledge of the users of those computers:

   The botnet was used primarily to send spam emails.

   Hackers built the botnet to carry out DDoS attacks.

botnet

/ ˈbɒtˌnɛt /

noun

1. sometimes with a capital a network of computers infected by a program that communicates with its creator in order to send unsolicited emails, attack websites, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of botnet¹

First recorded in 1990–95 in earlier sense “a network of bots”; bot ¹ + net(work)

Word History and Origins

Origin of botnet¹

C20: from ( ro ) bot + net ( work )

Example Sentences

The company said that the attackers are physically located in China and often rely on botnets made up of routers or other types of IoT devices.

From Ars Technica

Zero Day Clothing has some excellent t-shirts and other clothing for your hacker or security-minded friends, from celebrating Diffie-Hellman encryption, fearing the botnet or designing your own — there’s something for everyone.

From TechCrunch

Trickbot operators sell access to their vast number of infected machines to other criminals, who use the botnet to spread bank trojans, ransomware, and a host of other malicious software.

From Ars Technica

Along with other development choices, this leads us to believe that the botnet is used as a proxy network, potentially offered as an anonymization service.

From Ars Technica

We’re sure that they are going to notice and it will be hard for them to get back to the state that the botnet was in.

From Fortune

The attacks are often coordinated by a botnet, a web of compromised computers acting at the whim of the hackers behind the attack.

From The Daily Beast

The attack was accomplished by means of a botnet, and for that I felt bad, but it was in the service of a good cause.

From Project Gutenberg

There are so many infected PCs on the Internet that the price of hiring an hour or two on a botnet has crashed.

From Project Gutenberg