The cover story in USA Today’s Money Section investigated the Botnet Scams that are spreading across the internet. This botnet is comprised of thousands of bots that spread viruses and spam throughout personal emails and webpages. An example used in the article is a virus that was spread following Heath ledgers death. This email supposedly had a link divulging “the real reason” behind his death, when really it was just a part of a botnet scam. If an individual were to click on this link they would have been infected with the fast spreading Mega D Botnet, spreading spam for male enhancement pills. Studies and reports have shown that 40% of the 800 million computers connected to the internet in a day are involved in the botnet network of spreading email spam. Not only are email systems being attacked, but sensitive data is being stolen from banking and shopping websites, as well as spreading fresh infections. Everyday internet users come across spam mail or viruses, as they have become such a big part of the internet network.

The manner in which botnets operate directly relates to many topics we have covered in this class. The internet itself is a giant network connecting people to information they desire. Email has developed into a means of reaching individuals, and therefore has become a key way for these scammers to work, spreading their viruses and spam. Webpages themselves have recently been targeted as well, as botnets strive to extract important data. In class we have discussed the inner workings of hubs and how they work. The web tends to be a very difficult concept to grasp for many, as its comprised of so many networks. Searching the web alone is a very difficult task, as those botnet scammers control certain pages and areas. A lot of the difficulty surrounding searching the web has to do a lot with the reliability of the source, as any individual can be an author of a page. Information is geographically dispersed, enabling any of these scammers to create their own page. The game theory principle is based on the world reacting to your actions, or in this case, searches on the web. The scammers want their spam pages to score high for any search, whether that means writing the phrase over and over again, anything to attract these innocent web seekers.

Bot Net Scams.