botnet

noun

bot·​net ˈbät-ˌnet How to pronounce botnet (audio)
: 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

Examples of botnet in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The company has sourced the attacks to various botnets, or armies of infected computers. Michael Kan, PCMAG, 21 Jan. 2025 The botnet was made up of more than 260,000 consumer devices in North America, South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa and Australia, the FBI, Cyber National Mission Force and National Security Agency said in its initial joint advisory in September. Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill, 3 Jan. 2025 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 See All Example Sentences for botnet

Word History

Etymology

bot entry 1 + net entry 1

First Known Use

2003, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of botnet was in 2003

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Cite this Entry

“Botnet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/botnet. Accessed 5 Apr. 2025.

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