BOTNETs: A Network Security Issue

Abstract

With the technological advancements in the field of networking and information technology in general, organizations are enjoying the technological blessings and simultaneously under perpetual threats that are present in the form of attacks, designed especially to disable organizations and their infrastructure, as the gravest cyber threats in recent times. Compromised computers or BOTNETs are unarguably the most severe threat to the security of internet community. Organizations are doing their best to curb BOTNETs in every possible way, spending huge amount of their budget every year for available hardware and software solutions. This paper presents a survey on the security issues raised by the BOTNETs, their future; how they are evolving and how they could be circumvent to secure the most valuable resource of the organizations which is data. The compromised systems may be treated like viruses in the network which are capable of performing substantial loss to the organization including theft of confidential information. This paper highlights the parameters that should be considered by the organizations or Network administrators to find out the anomalies that may point to the presence of BOTNET in the network. The early detection may reduce the impact of damage by taking timely actions against compromised systems.