Title: SocioBot: a Twitter-based botnet

Authors: Ismeet Kaur Makkar; Fabio Di Troia; Corrado Aaron Visaggio; Thomas H. Austin; Mark Stamp

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, San Jose State University, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192, USA ' Department of Engineering, Università degli Studi del Sannio, Via Traiano, 3, Benevento BN, Italy ' Department of Engineering, Università degli Studi del Sannio, Via Traiano, 3, Benevento BN, Italy ' Department of Computer Science, San Jose State University, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192, USA ' Department of Computer Science, San Jose State University, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192, USA

Abstract: A botnet is a collection of computers controlled by a botmaster, often used for malicious activity. Social media provides an ideal platform for controlling a botnet, and also an avenue for botnets to spread their reach. In this research, we develop a botnet, SocioBot, that uses Twitter for its command and control (C&C) system. We conduct a variety of simulations based on this botnet. Epidemic models are used to validate and analyse our botnet simulations.

Keywords: malware; epidemic models; Twitter based botnets; stochastic simulation; social media; social networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSN.2017.081048

International Journal of Security and Networks, 2017 Vol.12 No.1, pp.1 - 12

Received: 19 Aug 2015
Accepted: 12 Mar 2016
Published online: 19 Dec 2016 *

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