What Is The BOTtom Line on Bots?

What is a bot? A bot is short for robot, but that part you probably knew. These days the term “bot” is used most often for cyber security. That and “botnet” (but that’s another video).

In cyber security, a bot refers to a computer that’s been compromised to push out spam or DDOS attacks or one with specific instructions to do something equally evil, such as stealing passwords, exploiting other vulnerabilities, or trying to bring back disco. These evil machinations may be part of the reason why bots are sometimes also called “Zombie machines”.

The BOTtom line is, bots are machines that have been compromised. There are examples of good bots as well. However, just like musical genres from the 70’s, not all bots are evil! There are examples of good bots as well. An example of a good bot you are probably familiar with is when you start an online chat with a question, and it returns some FAQ’s or information about your question. But if Bots were only used for good, we wouldn’t be here now would be?

The bad thing is that bots often go unnoticed, so they lurk around in the shadows for a long time capturing information and doing all their bad-bot tasks. They often have file names and processes that are similar to normal systems and processes to disguise themselves, and they can do a lot of damage to a computer or network before they are even noticed.

So how can you protect yourself? Ensure your antivirus suite is setup to always stay up to date and run frequent scans. There are also higher-level security services that actually monitor the behavior of your computer to see if it’s doing inappropriate things, like sending out spam, or trying to bring back disco.