What is Botnet?
Crypto Glossary Definition
A collection of computers infected with malicious software and controlled remotely without the owners' knowledge.
Why Botnet Matters
A botnet is a network of hijacked computers controlled without their owners' knowledge, historically used for cryptocurrency mining ("cryptojacking") by silently running mining software on victims' machines — it was a common form of crypto-related malware during periods when CPU/GPU mining was still profitable.
Botnet in Practice
A cybersecurity researcher investigating unusually high CPU usage reports from a corporate network traces the activity back to malware quietly installed across dozens of employee workstations without anyone's knowledge, silently running cryptocurrency mining software in the background whenever the machines were idle. Digging further, the researcher discovers the infected machines are all communicating with the same remote command server, confirming they've become part of a botnet, a network of hijacked computers a remote attacker controls collectively, in this case repurposed specifically for what's known as cryptojacking rather than the more commonly discussed uses like sending spam or launching distributed denial-of-service attacks. Calculating the numbers, the researcher estimates the attacker had been silently harvesting a modest but steady stream of mined cryptocurrency across the entire infected fleet for months, all while victims' electricity bills quietly crept up and their computers ran noticeably slower without any obvious explanation. After cleaning the infected machines and patching the vulnerability that let the malware spread in the first place, the researcher writes up the incident as a case study, noting that cryptojacking botnets became especially common during periods when mining smaller, CPU-friendly cryptocurrencies remained profitable, giving attackers a way to monetize stolen computing power directly rather than needing to sell stolen data on secondary markets.
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