Botnets are the main cause behind a wide range of spamming, hacking and malware activities happening in the cyber world. Yet, people are not much aware of this troublesome tool of hackers. Those cybercriminals are always busy sharing unlimited spam emails or generate several DDOS attacks on large organizational networks.

In general terms, botnets can be defined as a collection of many infected computers that are controlled by some hacker. Below we have highlighted 5 biggest and most dangerous botnets of all time:

Grum

It was originated in the year 2008 and as per the reports published in 2012, Grum was responsible for more than 26% of spam email traffic worldwide. In the year 2010, it was capable enough to share around 39.9 billion malicious messages per day. It is still the prime cause of around 18% of spam issues happening around the world.

ZeroAccess

ZeroAccess is the most recent botnet in the cyberworld. Estimates reveal that it has the efficiency to control more than 1.9 million computers all over the world. The major focus of this botnet is in the field of bitcoin mining and click fraud where viruses keep on generating some fake clicks on various advertises so that pay-per-click schemes can generate higher revenues. Experts reveal that this botnet is consuming huge power to run its infected computers that may otherwise serve almost 111000 homes every day.

Storm

The estimated number of computers affected by Storm is somewhere around 250,000 to 500,000. It was first identified in 2007 and the name was given as per the earliest spam messages delivered by it “230 dead as storm batters Europe”. Storm is one of the most powerful peers to peer botnet and it is widely known for its identity theft cases and share price frauds. It is called peer to peer botnet because the infected computers, in this case, are not controlled from any central server. Some reports reveal that it was also used by some of the biggest bidders to earn more profits from the share market.

Cutwail

Well, it is not that hard to cut down. This sophisticated botnet was reported to control almost 2 million computers with the ability to send more than 74 million spam emails /day. It is somewhere equal to one million emails per minute. It was believed to be the most powerful botnet in 2009 when it was the main cause behind 46.5 percent spams worldwide.

Conficker

Those who are little familiar with the computer viruses might have heard about Conficker. In the year 2000, it was known to be one of the most virulent malware and later in 2009, it infected more than 15 million computers. This botnet has many variants and they are all harmful to businesses and individuals.

Other than this, the cyber world has undergone major trouble due to many other botnets such as Kraken, Srizbi, Metulji, and Mariposa. Experts advise using solid security protocols and techniques to eliminate the risk of botnet attacks.