Botnet
A set of compromised devices controlled remotely by an attacker, used to launch denial-of-service attacks, send phishing or disguise an attack, which can engage the liability of an insured whose machines take part.
A botnet is a network of computers, servers or connected devices infected with software that lets an attacker command them remotely, without their owners' knowledge, through command and control infrastructure. Each machine alone contributes little; together, by tens or hundreds of thousands, they produce denial-of-service attacks able to saturate the largest services, massive fraudulent email campaigns, or a screen of countless addresses behind which the attacker hides its origin. Connected devices, cameras, routers, recorders, often shipped with default passwords never changed, have become their raw material. For insurance, the botnet appears in two ways. As a vector, it causes business interruption at the target of a denial-of-service attack and at everyone depending on the targeted infrastructure. As a liability risk, it implicates an insured whose equipment, lacking basic protection, took part in an attack on a third party, which the network security liability cover addresses.
On October 21, 2016, the Mirai botnet, made up of about 100,000 compromised connected devices, mainly cameras and video recorders, attacked the domain name provider Dyn and made major online services in North America and Europe unreachable for several hours.
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