If you have never heard of a botnet, they are scary entities indeed. Imagine countless connected devices from all over the world, all joined together by malicious actors who want to use these infected devices to launch massive attacks against businesses, organizations, and governments. One such attack was launched by a Russian botnet consisting of millions of Internet of Things devices. Thanks to the efforts of the United States Department of Justice and various law enforcement agencies throughout Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, it has been brought to a halt.

Cybercriminals and hackers aren’t exactly examples of the most trustworthy people online, so it should come as no surprise that they are willing to exploit each other for their own benefit. We recently saw an example of this phenomenon with the Cobain botnet.