Botnets: From IRC to Android

This paper outlines the evolution of botnets from IRC to Android. It begins by detailing the two malware that started the botnet ball rolling: the Pretty Park worm and the SubSeven Trojan horse. Having been detected for the first time in 1999, they would listen to and accept malicious commands from an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel. There are literally thousands of botnets operating in the world today and FortiGuard Labs is an organization that monitors the activity of these botnets on a global basis, twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. According to FortiGuard, Vundo, Lethic, Torpig, ZeroAccess and Dorkbot have been five of the most active botnets in the last few years. This paper provides an analysis of incidents involving these five botnets and investigates the potential impact of botnets on Android-based smartphones. To avoid becoming a victim of these botnet attacks, it is recommended that you use an antivirus application that automatically activates whenever the battery is being charged.