Identity Theft and Computer Crimeware: Bots

The term "bot" is for robot.  Not the kind of robot you have seen in movies and television shows (does anyone remember 'Lost In Space'?) or the one at the car assembly plant.  Bots are now one of the most complex types of crimeware on the Internet and therefore a significant tool for identity theft.  Bots are a lot like worms and Trojans, except that they can perform a wide variety of automated tasks on behalf of their master who is usually located far, far away.

Bots can perform nasty tasks like sending spam that can blast a Web site right off the internet when the spam is part of a coordinated "denial of service" attack.  A bot infected computer does the work for its master and that machine is known as a "zombie".  Bots can enter your computer in several ways.  They are able to search the internet for vulnerable and un-protected (Nawaz, please link to Symantec) computers and inject the infection.  After infecting the machine they immediately report back to their master.

The bots objective now is to stay hidden until their master awakens them and assigns a task.  Bots are so silent that the victim does not know of their existence until the Internet Service Provider notifies you that your computer has been spamming other Internet users.  There are times when the bot will actually clean up an infected computer so that it will not get bumped off the victims machine by another identity thieves bot.  Bots can also infect by being downloaded by a Trojan, installed by a malicious Web site or emailed directly to you from an existing infected computer.