Botnet Detection

Cybercriminals use botnet attacks to accomplish malicious actions. These attacks can have serious effects on businesses. It’s for this reason that companies with online operations have to learn botnet detection techniques to protect their data. With the nature of online attacks evolving rapidly, cybercriminals use attack tactics that are not easy to detect. However, all isn’t lost since there are botnet detection strategies that businesses can use to protect their online integrity and valuable resources. Let’s delve into more information about botnet detection.

How to Detect Botnet Effectively

According to the Hindawi journal, there are different ways organizations and businesses can use botnet detection in their system. The usage of these techniques requires knowledge, resources, and efforts. That’s why it’s advisable for companies to have security experts handle the technical side of dealing with botnet attacks.

Use of Established and Quality Cybersecurity Practices

The influx of botnets deems it necessary for companies to implement the usage of standard cybersecurity practices in their internet-based environments. Examples of areas that should have these practices include routers, networking devices, and endpoint equipment. Security officers in these companies have a responsibility of ensuring that the devices and equipment used can be updated.

Also, they should ensure that detection tools are in place to detect any incoming attacks. These tools should be of high quality, and able to address the problems facing today’s botnet attacks. As you already know, botnet attacks are shifting from simple to complex forms, thus it’s imperative for security chiefs to use the best tools available.

It is also a prudent move for online security engineers to work towards a segmentation protocol. This goes a long way to prevent attacks against the online resources of companies. In order to achieve this, they have to generate software-defined parameters around segments and then create tough authentication demands as a way of limiting access to devices.

For example, it is possible to limit the access of particular devices within the network of a business to a particular IP address. Through this, anything that isn’t within that environment should come out as a sign that things are not right. This should give the security team a reason to check the vulnerabilities of the system and prevent any potential botnet attacks.

Monitor Suspicious Activities

According to ScienceDirect, effective monitoring of a system is vital in detecting botnets. In the event that devices in a system get compromised, there will be suspicious activities taking place that should raise an alarm. Security experts have the capacity to scrutinize the activities happening within a system and tell whether there are botnet attacks seeking to take advantage of vulnerabilities. This brings us to the issue of monitoring networks to check whether there are activities trying to gain illegal entry into a system.

In this regard, companies should have a good understanding of their traffic so as to know when and how botnet attacks happen. It is difficult to detect a botnet if you don’t have a firm grip on the traffic operations on your network. You can use data analytics tools to give you the necessary data required to know what is happening in your network. The good thing with network monitoring is that you not only get to see suspicious activities but also take action to block the vulnerabilities that present themselves.

Attempts to Gain Entry into a System

For cybercriminals to succeed in their malicious activities, they try to enter into systems to extract data illegally or corrupt systems. Legitimate entry into a system should not be a problem and for that matter, it doesn’t raise alarm. However, when there is an attempt at the illegitimate entry to a system or network, there will be red flags showing. It is at this point that you should be able to detect potential botnet attacks. For example, if there are failed attempts to login into your system, you should take note of that incident.

It is advisable to have an idea of the standard ratio of failed logins so as to know when things are not right. Hackers will try to log in many times to gain entry into your network. If this happens, you should know that botnet attacks are imminent. You should ensure that you have strong passwords that are hard to crack. Secure passwords make it difficult for cybercriminals to access your system, thus being able to detect suspicious activity happening on your network.

Categories of Botnet Detection

There are two categories of botnet detection: static and behavioral bot detection. Static analysis has three major characteristics- it is easy, faster, and not resource-intensive. On the other hand, behavioral analysis is more resource-intensive and systematic. When you’re using static analysis for botnet detection, you’re looking for a particular match to malware. The problem with this method is that if there is a slight change in the signature of the malware, it becomes a challenge to detect it. Though it is a fast and easy way of botnet detection, it will not offer you the best service if you’re dealing with complicated malware.

That’s why you need to use a behavioral analysis. Since this approach emphasizes the behavior of attacks, it employs a more thorough system of detecting botnet activities. By using the behavioral analysis resources required, you’re able to locate unusual activities within a system or network that point to botnet attacks. Essentially, the behavioral analysis gives an organization a wider scope of detecting botnets and handling them in the best way possible.

The bottom line is that the level of malicious activities taking place in the online space is evolving and becoming more and more complicated. In this respect, it is vital for businesses and organizations with a heavy internet presence to use smart botnet detection solutions. The only way to detect and prevent serious attacks is by employing the best practices and solutions. You have to be a step ahead of attackers so as to defeat them. This is a challenge for security engineers and experts to introduce new and innovative ways of dealing with botnets.