With the rise in the digital presence of businesses, comes the threat of botnets. In the first quarter of 2020, Kaspersky recorded a significant rise in the quantity and quality of DDoS attacks controlled by botnets. Kaspersky also linked this upswing to the increased demand for distance-learning services and official sources of information as a result of the spread of COVID-19.
Botnet attacks have become diseases we cannot get rid of. For instance, the Mirai botnet first appeared four years ago, and Richard Hummel attributes the pervasive nature of Mirai to the release of its source code, which made it possible for any person to build their own botnets. Here are just a few of the implications that botnets poses to all businesses:
Spamming
Spammers are the bane of most business existence, they use different techniques and tools to send messages not related to the topic of discussion to newsgroups or list servers. The major implication of spamming is that spam emails or contents create backdoor attacks on your business networks and gain stability via spam emails.
Denial of Service (DoS)
An unprotected business site is like a candy shop for hackers and botnet attacks, it is easy for hackers to simply flood such networks with so much traffic that it overwhelms the processing power of the site and shuts it down.
Nothing feels worse than losing access to your business, this can shut down a business completely and completely destroy the reputation of such a company if they can’t deliver their promised services.
Phishing
Botnets are also used for phishing attacks. Vitaly Kamluk stated that with botnets, phishers can frequently change the addresses of phishing pages as soon as they are blacklisted. Thus, unsuspecting users will be continuously exposed to these pages which are used to perpetrate various forms of scams.
There are just so many implications of botnet attacks that everyone should prepare their business for. The earlier you understand the implication, the earlier you start taking preventive measures to counter their effects.
Educate your staff (and yourself), then enable the Windows firewall. Kaspersky stated that Windows botnets are gaining popularity, so remember this when you intend to disable your Windows firewall to prevent it from blocking other network connections.
However, Wang Wei suggests that if your networked computers have an alternative adequate firewall protection, then the Windows firewall can be disabled. Wei also opines that extra layers of protection should also be employed.
For instance, you could shore up the network at specific, vulnerable contact points. Other tools like network intrusion detection systems, rootkit detection packages and network sniffers can also be used. Wei states that while intrusion detection systems are highly efficient, they are expensive and difficult to deploy successfully. Also, the majority of these tools cannot correct existent deficiencies in the operating system.
In preparing against botnet threats, it is important you be in control. Not everyone should be granted admin rights. Restricting access to only yourself and one or two others will not only secure your network from internal threats but from external ones too. Also, since the automatic ability of computers to interconnect provides a route through which botnets can circulate, deactivating this connectivity adds an extra layer of security.
Precautions that can be taken against botnet attacks
Some botnet attacks happen due to negligence or lackadaisical behaviors towards the security of your business. Some attacks are inevitable, but taking some extra precautions against botnet attacks will not cost you half of what these threats will.
Understand your data and know its area of vulnerability. It is always ideal and important a business understands its data. Not just understanding alone, but also identifying how susceptible it can be to botnet attacks.
Have a backup of all your data. Securing your business data is very necessary and should be your paramount priority. As a business owner, you always backup your business data, keep an eye on it, and make sure it’s always updated. This will help get back if your business ever faces a major botnet attack.
Getting an anti-malware solution. With other precautions being listed, you can still get an anti-malware solution to help fight and resist these botnet threats.
For example, want to reduce spam messages? Get yourself a solution like modusGate and modusCloud to reduce spam content. These solutions keep you away from lawsuits and make sure your business becomes more productive and secure by filtering spam contents.
Getting a full-time team of IT professionals on your side will also help get your business prepared for Botnet attacks.
In conclusion, the increasing dependence on the Internet has brought about an alarming number of all shades of botnet threats. Some botnet attacks are inevitable and very disastrous to both small and large scale businesses. To be on the safe side, you need to understand the implications of these attacks and know the precautions to take. This is how you prepare your business to face botnet threats.