Bothunter

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What Does Bothunter Mean?

In IT, a bothunter is a tool provisioned to assess or work with virtual “bots.” A common example of a bothunter is a UNIX utility (known as “BotHunter”) that looks at “bot” behavior within a network.

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Techopedia Explains Bothunter

The makers of the Unix BotHunter describe it as a “network defense algorithm” that detects certain kinds of automated scripts such as spambots, worms, adware and different types of malware programs. The BotHunter tool is partially derived from an algorithm referred to as “network dialog correlation” developed in private research by trade groups.

Using the network traffic analysis tool known as Snort, BotHunter analyzes individual data exchanges to figure out whether they represent certain types of malware processes. BotHunter compares its collected processes against models or profiles of various malware infections. In other words, rather than defining actual collected data against the baseline for what is normal in a network, BotHunter tries to use profiles of infection activity to characterize what it finds in a given network cycle.

Automated scripts characterized as “bots” play a wide variety of roles in data transmission across global networks. While some of them can be relatively innocuous, others can be identified as certain types of cyberattacks or hacking. Tools like bothunters help security professionals to build more secure systems and use more network monitoring tools to protect their digital assets.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.