Let’s start with defining what a botnet is, in case you’ve never heard of the term before. A botnet is a network of computers, sometimes called a “zombie army,” all infected with the same virus. The zombie army is controlled by criminals. What is done with the zombie army later is up to the criminals. You can get infected the same way you get any computer virus, via malware by accidentally downloading it. Unfortunately, botnets pose a serious threat to businesses today.
* Lost Time and Money – When any type of virus attacks your network, it will be costly in terms of both time and money. You might lose a lot of data that is important, or it may be corrupt, and it will take time and money to fix and recreate what was lost.
* Loss of Trust – Unfortunately, if your website, computer or email list is ever taken over by a botnet, you may unknowingly send spam to others on social media, via email, and even infect others via your website. This can result in a loss of trust by the public of your business. It can even destroy a business.
* Legal Issues – One well-known example is the fact that a lot of illegal botnets are currently hosted on the Amazon cloud. They’re not purposefully hosting criminals, but due to their cheap hosting and the ease of signing up, some people believe Amazon and other hosts like them should be held more accountable for problems.
* Manpower Issues – When you have to use your people to fix these types of problems, it takes them away from what they should be doing. It doesn’t even matter whether you have to hire someone specially to take care of it or you have to divert someone, the issue still causes problems with your contractors and employees and takes them away from what they should be doing.
* Infects Your Cloud – More than likely if you do business online at all, you use the cloud. Almost everyone does today, even without a business. They use banks, online appointments at their doctor’s office, email, and so forth. As a business owner you likely use the cloud for much more, and if your cloud is infected it can cause your information to be banned.
* Spam Problems – If you have an intranet that is being slammed by spam, it’s likely your business has been infected with a botnet. They’ve taken all the email addresses of your employees or members and use them as their own.
* Click Fraud – If you run ads online, or have shares that you want engagement with on social media, it can be very disheartening to realize that a lot of your likes are fraudulent. This happens a lot on Facebook ads to get more likes for your page. This is costly, and messes up your conversion numbers.
* More Expensive IT Costs – Having to worry about becoming part of a zombie army can be very expensive in terms of IT costs. Not only do cloud-based companies have to spend more on security, you as an individual also have to really double check everything and even hire more knowledgeable people to ensure you don’t get trapped.
To protect yourself from being part of a botnet “zombie army,” it’s imperative that you keep all your software updated, your computer updated, and use only reputable cloud companies that keep up to date on security.