How Cybercriminals Are Using Bitcoin’s Blockchain to Make Botnets Stronger Than Ever

Bitcoin’s blockchain appears to be the newest tool that cybercriminals are using to make their botnets incredibly resilient.

Last week, Google announced that it had partially disrupted the operations of a massive botnet—a gargantuan network of over one million malware-infected Windows computers. In the world of cybersecurity, that would be news on its own, but this particular network was using an alarming blockchain integration that makes it tough to beat.

Botnets are basically armies of “zombie” devices—servers that have been infected with malware and tied into a malicious network, the likes of which can then be used to commit large-scale criminal activity. Most people whose device has been compromised and become part of a botnet have no idea that it’s happened, and their computer basically functions as an unwitting accomplice to cybercrime.

Read more