Black Market Botnets

Abstract

Botnets have yet to be exploited to their full potential, because they have yet to take advantage of all the information available to them. The zombie computers that comprise a botnet have access to the private documents of the people that use the computers. A botmaster who controls the botnet can harvest the documents and sell them to third parties, creating a viable if illegal online business. We outline motivations for such a business model, as well as the mechanics of a possible implementation. We then present a variety of defenses against this scenario.