It turns out I was part of a botnet and I didn't even know it!
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 4:32 am
Accompanying image
Due to her job, Sigrid constantly uses both her computer and her smartphone. Since these tools are essential for her daily work, she has become aware of the need to have the different security measures that her devices must have, such as:
Have the antivirus installed and always updated .
Keep your system and applications always up to date .
Make regular backups .
On the computer, do not use the user with administrator permissions on a regular basis .
Use strong passwords that are different for each service .
Thanks to all these security measures in place, Sigrid believed her new zealand phone number data devices were immune to any type of malware infection.
However, one morning, while she was working on her computer, which she had only had for a few months and which had more than remarkable features, she noticed that it was not working as usual. Some commonly used pages, such as Google, Facebook or Twitter, sometimes took longer to load than usual. At first she thought it was due to a problem with the services themselves, but after a conversation with Eric, her work colleague, and after checking that he had not noticed anything strange, Sigrid began to suspect that something was not right.
The first thing she did was to run a quick scan with the antivirus she had installed on both her smartphone and PC, and the results of both scans were negative. But Sigrid was not satisfied and decided to run the scans again, but this time scanning the entire system, not like the previous time, when she only scanned certain folders.
Once he had prepared his computer to start the scan again, he noticed that the antivirus was not updated, as its last update was almost a month ago. He tried to update it manually but was unable to do so, deducing that his computer must be infected with some kind of malware, which prevented the antivirus from updating correctly.
Sigrid contacted Eric again. She told him that she suspected that her computer was infected with some kind of malware. Eric confirmed her theory by adding that it was probably part of a zombie network, better known as a botnet , since not updating the antivirus was a common practice for self-protection against this type of malicious software, and considering that her PC showed unusual network activity, these were sufficient clues to make her suspicious. But Eric had a possible solution that his colleague Sigrid didn't know about: the OSI AntiBotnet Service .
Indeed, Sigrid was not familiar with this service. Once she accessed the OSI page that explains what it is and how to use it, she realized that it was very easy to install and use, so that if any type of security incident related to botnets was detected, a message would alert her in real time thanks to the plugin available for the browser, in addition to the steps she would have to follow for disinfection.
AntiBotnet Service Browser Plugins
There are three ways to detect threats with the AntiBotnet Service:
Through an incident code : notification sent by Internet service operators to users.
The online check-up service : the user, through the website ( /citizenship/antibotnet-service/information ), checks whether there are any cybersecurity threats or incidents with botnets associated with their Internet connection.
Browser plugin : The plugin is downloaded to the browser (available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome) and the service notifies the user in real time if they are involved in an incident of this nature.
Sigrid decided to go with the latter option and install the plugin for Chrome since it was the browser she used most frequently.
Due to her job, Sigrid constantly uses both her computer and her smartphone. Since these tools are essential for her daily work, she has become aware of the need to have the different security measures that her devices must have, such as:
Have the antivirus installed and always updated .
Keep your system and applications always up to date .
Make regular backups .
On the computer, do not use the user with administrator permissions on a regular basis .
Use strong passwords that are different for each service .
Thanks to all these security measures in place, Sigrid believed her new zealand phone number data devices were immune to any type of malware infection.
However, one morning, while she was working on her computer, which she had only had for a few months and which had more than remarkable features, she noticed that it was not working as usual. Some commonly used pages, such as Google, Facebook or Twitter, sometimes took longer to load than usual. At first she thought it was due to a problem with the services themselves, but after a conversation with Eric, her work colleague, and after checking that he had not noticed anything strange, Sigrid began to suspect that something was not right.
The first thing she did was to run a quick scan with the antivirus she had installed on both her smartphone and PC, and the results of both scans were negative. But Sigrid was not satisfied and decided to run the scans again, but this time scanning the entire system, not like the previous time, when she only scanned certain folders.
Once he had prepared his computer to start the scan again, he noticed that the antivirus was not updated, as its last update was almost a month ago. He tried to update it manually but was unable to do so, deducing that his computer must be infected with some kind of malware, which prevented the antivirus from updating correctly.
Sigrid contacted Eric again. She told him that she suspected that her computer was infected with some kind of malware. Eric confirmed her theory by adding that it was probably part of a zombie network, better known as a botnet , since not updating the antivirus was a common practice for self-protection against this type of malicious software, and considering that her PC showed unusual network activity, these were sufficient clues to make her suspicious. But Eric had a possible solution that his colleague Sigrid didn't know about: the OSI AntiBotnet Service .
Indeed, Sigrid was not familiar with this service. Once she accessed the OSI page that explains what it is and how to use it, she realized that it was very easy to install and use, so that if any type of security incident related to botnets was detected, a message would alert her in real time thanks to the plugin available for the browser, in addition to the steps she would have to follow for disinfection.
AntiBotnet Service Browser Plugins
There are three ways to detect threats with the AntiBotnet Service:
Through an incident code : notification sent by Internet service operators to users.
The online check-up service : the user, through the website ( /citizenship/antibotnet-service/information ), checks whether there are any cybersecurity threats or incidents with botnets associated with their Internet connection.
Browser plugin : The plugin is downloaded to the browser (available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome) and the service notifies the user in real time if they are involved in an incident of this nature.
Sigrid decided to go with the latter option and install the plugin for Chrome since it was the browser she used most frequently.