Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A network of maliciously installed bots running on multiple computers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Internet A collection of zombies that are controlled by the same cracker; a collection of compromised computers that is slowly built up then unleashed as a DDOS attack or used to send very large quantities of spam.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From bot +‎ net.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "The new form of attack indicates that little progress has been made in defusing the threat of botnets, networks of infected computers that criminals use to send spam, steal passwords and do other forms of damage, according to computer security investigators."

    The New York Times, Russian Gang Hijacking PCs in Vast Scheme, by John Markoff, August 5, 2008

    August 6, 2008

  • I just love this word.

    August 6, 2008

  • Me too.

    August 6, 2008