Botnets

In the course of the ever-increasing spread of broadband Internet connections, a new danger is increasingly emerging in addition to the threats in the area of IT use that have existed for a long time and are known in many cases: that one's own IT system is unknowingly misused as part of a botnet. By violating basic security rules, there is a risk of becoming part of such a botnet.

»Bot« is derived from robot and refers to a computer program that largely independently executes certain tasks that are often repeated. Bots pose a security problem when they infect other computers in the form of Trojans in order to execute certain commands remotely, as unnoticed by the user as possible.

»Bot networks« oder »botnets« are a remotely controllable association of a large number of computers infected with bots, which are often abused for spam preparation and DDoS attacks.
Further information on the topic can be found on the website of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), among others.

The following general protective measures help against this type of threat:

• Regular update of the operating system
• Closing known security gaps
• Use of up-to-date virus protection software and firewall

»eco« – - the Association of the German Internet Industry - has founded the Anti-Botnet Advisory Centre (botfrei.de) with the support of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), which addresses the issue and offers support in the three focus areas of »informing«, »cleaning« and »preventing«.