Botnets are basically groups of computers which some unsavory people have infected and networked for the purpose of spreading viruses, as well as send spam.

The biggest problem with botnets is they are very difficult to track back to their creators, and, unfortunately, they are becoming used more and more in extortion attempts. If you’re wondering how exactly they’re used in to extort, just consider a person who sends you emails to either pay what is demanded or see your website crash. Unfortunately this type of activity becomes an almost common occurrence.

Often times botnets consist of hundreds or even thousands of compromised computers. With such giant networks at their disposal, botnets can use DDoS as a method to cause troubles. An example of this is, a small botnet with 500 bots is sometimes able to bring corporate websites down through the use of bandwidth combination of all computers in order to overwhelm the system.

One technique that can be used to fight against botnets is what is known as a ‘honeypot’. A Honeypot is able to assist in finding out how attackers gain access to systems. Honeypots are basically a set of computing resources that a person permits to be compromised for the purpose of gauging the ways hackers trick the system. The Unpatched operating systems Windows 2000 or XP machines offer good honeypots due to the ease in which their systems can be compromised.