Botnets as a Vehicle for Online Crime

Citation
Nicholas Ianelli & Aaron Hackworth, Botnets as a Vehicle for Online Crime (Dec. 1, 2005) (full-text).

Overview
An analysis of real-world botnets indicates the increasing sophistication of bot malware and its thoughtful engineering as an effective tool for profit-motivated online crime. This analysis of source code and captured binaries has provided insight about:


 * how botnets are built
 * what capabilities botnets possess
 * how botnets are operated
 * how botnets are maintained and defended

The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the capabilities present in bot malware and the motivations for operating botnets.