Well, it seems like every few days we're hearing about another major corporation getting hacked,
millions of bits of personal information then cast across cyberspace for everyone to see and potentially steal.
Well, that is disturbing enough, but as John Vause reports, it may actually be getting worse.
It's an ideal criminal platform for Internet attacks. Botnets are cheap to build and anonymous.
They quietly steal bank logins, passwords and credit card numbers.
There's estimated trillions of dollars stolen through botnets every year, so it's a very, very serious syndicate, or sort of cartel, if you will.
It's one of the few things out there that actually has more money flowing through it than the drug trade. So, it's a monstrous industry.
Botnets are networks of compromised computers infected with so-called cyberworms
that give criminals remote command of the machines they infect without the owners knowing.
Karim Hijazi's botnet-tracking firm, Unveillance, recently found the largest documented botnet,
with tens of millions of computers infected in more than 170 countries.
It's called Metulji, Slovenian for "butterfly."
Slovenia seems to be the birthplace of a lot of this.
Two cyber-gang members have been arrested in Slovenia and Bosnia, but security firms and international law enforcement agencies believe more are responsible.
Among the stealthily organized cyber criminals is a different breed of hackers.
They use botnets plus social media as weapons. They claim corrupt governments and corporations are their targets.
We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive.
They're mostly young anarchists. It seems as though they're mostly in large European cities or large American cities.
They call themselves Anonymous. This question mark face and the Guy Fawkes mask are their signatures.
They send anti-government messages on YouTube and Twitter and have targeted major sites like Google, Sony and the CIA.
This group is basically about, you know, "fight the power," "fight the Man," "let's take down the CIA."
This Friday, they went after the U.S. state of Arizona's law enforcement for the third time, releasing 1,200 officer's user names, passwords and e-mail addresses.
Karim Hijazi's company has also been a target.
It doesn't make much sense to attack a start-up after you've just hit Sony,
so we obviously had something of value they wanted, and clearly it was the botnet information that we had.
Hijazi says botnets are a very important weapon for hackers and that Anonymous has started a hacking school to teach others.
One of the first things they sort of announced within this hacking school is they're passing out kits or software that can help people facilitate a botnet.
It's only a matter of time until someone utilizes a botnet to attack critical infrastructure, and then we're really gonna see something that hits home.
You know, the minute they attack something like a power grid or a water treatment facility and take down something in that vein, people are gonna feel it in the general public, and I think that's what's gonna be the bigger scare.
The power is the unknown for professional hackers out to make money and hacktivists with or without an agenda.