Nihilinux

I teach a course at the home office that is part of the Senior Law Enforcement Seminar for the state of Arkansas.  My period of instruction is based on cyber terrorism awareness.  I basically teach cops the basics about how the bad guys operate on the internet.  One nugget I found that I just can’t help but love more and more is this pictorial of how a botnet operates:

A diagram of the process by which spammers use zombie (virus-infected) computers to send spam.

1. Virus writer sends out viruses, infecting ordinary users’ Windows PCs.
2. Infected PCs log into an IRC server or other communications medium, forming a network of infected systems known as a botnet.
3. Spammer purchases access to this botnet from virus writer or a dealer.
4. Spammer sends instructions to the botnet, instructing the infected PCs to send out spam.
5. The infected PCs send the spam messages to Internet users’ mail servers.

As stated, this is NOT my work.  I’d LOVE to give appropriate credit for it, but don’t have those details.  If you know of the author or another place to find it online, feel free to contact me and I’ll give appropriate credit.

Post Edit:  I found the source for this image @ wikimedia.  Thanks to Cory Doctorow for the heads up.