It can be used, for example, to paralyze websites or to send spam.Īs a result, in principle all devices connected to the Internet are at risk of malware infection. A botnet is a temporarily created network of many computers and electronic devices from the Internet. This usually happens without users noticing. If devices are infected, they can be used by cyber criminals to set up a so-called botnet. Most of the malware in circulation has the functionality to remotely control an infected system. Sometimes it is enough to simply call up a website with a prepared advertising banner - and your own computer is already infected with a malware program.

Although USB sticks or external USB hard disks still play a role in malware distribution today, in the always-on age the Internet has clearly become the most important infection route through which malware most frequently penetrates foreign systems.Ĭyber criminals attempt to infect foreign systems with malware through a wide variety of channels - for example, via a file attachment to a seemingly trustworthy email, as a hidden 'add-on' to a free download, or as a malicious macro within an Office document. Malware could therefore only get from one system to the next via exchangeable data carriers such as floppy disks or, later, CD-ROMs. When PCs began to enter more and more offices and private households in the 1980s, the Internet did not yet exist in its present form.

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