"bot herder"

[Mark Mandel]

I don't think "farm" is helpful there; it's an overextension of the
metaphor in "herder". Even in the (currently rare) sense you're using,
it implies that the bot herder is either
 1. providing a service to someone else for payment, or
 2. paying the owners of the computers for his use of them.

Against (1), he may be doing it for his own vandalistic or profitable
pursuits (e.g., advertising his own site). Against (2), he's a
parasite, not a symbiont.

m a m

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 3:11 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> "bot herder"  -- he[a]rd on NPR's "Here and Now" today, about 12:15
> PM EDT, Boston.
>
> Wikipedia has a "stub", apparently created January
> 2007.  urbandictionary does not have a definition.
>
> Wikipedia's definition is prolix and nerdy:
>
> "Bot herders are crackers who use automated techniques to scan
> specific network ranges and find vulnerable systems, such as machines
> without current security patches, on which to install their bot
> program. The infected machine then has become one of many zombies in
> a botnet and responds to commands given by the bot herder, usually
> via an Internet Relay Chat channel."
>
> I have in mind something like:
>
> "A person who farms[1] internet-connected computers ..." [etc.; a la
> "that can be co-opted by third parties for their own purposes without
> the permission of their owners."]
>
> [1]  "farm" v.2  sense 2.b. "To lease or let the proceeds or profits
> of (customs, taxes, tithes, an undertaking) for a fixed payment."
>
> Joel

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