: a network of computers that have been linked together by malware : a network of bots (see bot entry 1 sense 2b)
Criminals link hijacked personal computers together to form "botnets"—clusters of infected PCs that spammers can control from anywhere in the world.—
Dave Mosher
Dave MosherExamples of botnet in a Sentence
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Once a botnet is established, the attacker can direct it to carry out an attack by sending remote instructions to each bot.
—Hannah Parry, Newsweek, 10 Mar. 2025
Threat intelligence researchers have confirmed that one of the largest botnets of its kind ever detected has installed more than a million Android consumer devices with a backdoor to leverage a number of cyber attacks.
—Davey Winder, Forbes, 6 Mar. 2025
In its newest report, Cloudflare traced the Oct. 29 DDoS to a botnet using a variant of Mirai malware to infect IoT devices.
—Michael Kan, PCMAG, 21 Jan. 2025
It was comprised from a botnet of 13,000 devices taken over by the Mirai malware, according to Cloudflare’s blog.
—Kate O'Flaherty, Forbes, 22 Jan. 2025
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Hannah Parry, Newsweek, 10 Mar. 2025
Threat intelligence researchers have confirmed that one of the largest botnets of its kind ever detected has installed more than a million Android consumer devices with a backdoor to leverage a number of cyber attacks.
—Davey Winder, Forbes, 6 Mar. 2025
In its newest report, Cloudflare traced the Oct. 29 DDoS to a botnet using a variant of Mirai malware to infect IoT devices.
—Michael Kan, PCMAG, 21 Jan. 2025
It was comprised from a botnet of 13,000 devices taken over by the Mirai malware, according to Cloudflare’s blog.
—Kate O'Flaherty, Forbes, 22 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for botnet
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Cite this Entry
“Botnet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/botnet. Accessed 18 Mar. 2025.
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