Cybercrime What is a “Botherder”

The internet and crime are analogous to athletes and drug testing. As one becomes superior through performance enhancing drugs a new wave of detecting techniques must evolve, but by using the knowledge gained during the detection techniques, the athlete learns how to cover against the next technology for discovering the performance enhancing drugs.

A Botherder uses this same philosophy. A Botherder uses the brilliance of the internet and its ability to spread virally to spread malicious and disabling “bots” into a community of computers. This goes beyond the firewall in your computer (though your own PC may be affected or infected), it would equate to something like HIV AIDS attacking every person on the Congress or every trader at Wall Street. The techniques are used to disable business, commerce, banking, trade, legislation, power, documentation and many other things.

Botherders may use virus software through proxy computer networks and false domains to trick you into installing or downloading. They then send bots or zombies into your computer to highjack your personal information. If it sounds like a horror movie, you might believe it if you download any virus software that actually identifies these malicious bugs on your computer; phishing, worms and Trojans are probably the names you have heard.