The term Bot is derived from the word “Robot”. Robot comes from the Czech word "robot," which means "worker". In computer world Bot is a generic term used to describe an automated process. Bots are being used widely on the Internet for various purposes.
Bot functionality may vary from search engines to game bots and IRC channel bots. Google bot is one such famous search bot, which crawls through the web pages on the net to collect information and build database to enable variety of searches. Computer controlled opponents and enemies in multiple player video games are also a kind of bot, where the computer process tries to emulate the human behavior.
However, the usage of bots is not limited to good purpose only. Bots are widely used to perform malicious activities ranging from information stealing to using as a launching pad for distributed attack. Such software’s gets installed on user’s computer without their knowledge. Some bot infected machines, pass the control of the machine to a remote attacker and act as per the attackers command. Such machines are popularly known as zombie machines.
Bot functionality may vary from search engines to game bots and IRC channel bots. Google bot is one such famous search bot, which crawls through the web pages on the net to collect information and build database to enable variety of searches. Computer controlled opponents and enemies in multiple player video games are also a kind of bot, where the computer process tries to emulate the human behavior.
However, the usage of bots is not limited to good purpose only. Bots are widely used to perform malicious activities ranging from information stealing to using as a launching pad for distributed attack. Such software’s gets installed on user’s computer without their knowledge. Some bot infected machines, pass the control of the machine to a remote attacker and act as per the attackers command. Such machines are popularly known as zombie machines.
