Term: bot

bot – derived from “robot” – is a computer infected with malware that performs tasks on behalf of someone else, taking instructions on what to do from a computer elsewhere on the internet.

The most common example of a bot would be a computer infected with malware which is instructed to send spam.

A collection of bots under the control of a single remote “bot herder” is referred to as a botnet.

See also: zombie.

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