Botnets and the Threat to Network Security and Social Network Integrity

• Author(s): Fori Barka Tatama ; Maikori Jenom ; Onu Egena ; Lawal Ibrahim ; Ipole-Adelaiye Nancy
• Paper ID: 1706012
• Page: 94-99
• Published Date: 09-07-2024
• Published In: Iconic Research And Engineering Journals
• Publisher: IRE Journals
• e-ISSN: 2456-8880
• Volume/Issue: Volume 8 Issue 1 July-2024

Abstract

Botnets or Bots are a menace to cyber-security and social integrity, they are several computing devices that are remotely controlled by an attacker to carry out malicious acts. They are used to carry out several attacks and deceitful acts on social networks to scam several people online from faking number of followers, number of likes on social networks. On a larger scale, botnets are used for setting off distributed denial of service attacks which is very dangerous for any business that falls victim to this attack, several business services are lost during these attacks which in turn leads to loss of money. Botnets takes two stages to form, first is the creation stage, in this stage the attacker creates a virus responsible for infecting computers and recruiting them to the network, this virus can be created from scratch or in certain cases the source code is gotten online and edited to suite the new purpose, after the development of the virus is completed we then proceed to the propagation stage which is the stage where a virus infects the computer being recruited to join the network, when the computer is infected and recruited the propagation continues to other computers till a vast network is created and ready to attack. Once several computers have been recruited as part of the botnet, the botmaster can proceed to rally the botnet to carry out attacks like distributed denial of service attacks, click fraud and identity theft, and other social network attacks like hashtag hijacking, trend jacking or click farming. These attacks are always dangerous for people or victims that are affected as it could lead to their identities being stolen or losing business services for long time. Due to the difficulty of detecting botnet attacks and difficulty in getting rid of botnets several techniques have been designed to detect botnet attacks, one of which is the honeypot technique, this technique means the use of traps to lure out the botnet to observe strange trends and patterns, these patterns are then use to the inform security personnel on the decision to take to prevent the botnet from carrying out attacks that drops business services.

Keywords

Botnet, Malware, Cybersecurity, Social Networks.

Citations

IRE Journals:
Fori Barka Tatama , Maikori Jenom , Onu Egena , Lawal Ibrahim , Ipole-Adelaiye Nancy "Botnets and the Threat to Network Security and Social Network Integrity" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 8 Issue 1 2024 Page 94-99

IEEE:
Fori Barka Tatama , Maikori Jenom , Onu Egena , Lawal Ibrahim , Ipole-Adelaiye Nancy "Botnets and the Threat to Network Security and Social Network Integrity" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 8(1)