"bot herder"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/14/2008 04:48 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>I don't think "farm" is helpful there; it's an overextension of the
>metaphor in "herder".

You don't like metaphors?  And I take umbrage at "overextension" -- I
live in the 18th century.  (Mark, I was joshing.)  In any case, the
Wikipedia stub's definition is certainly not dictionary-worthy.

>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.

In the discussion I heard on NPR, the bot herder was described as
renting his herd of bot-ulent [I want credit for a coinage!  No hits
on Google] computers for cheapo (4 cents a computer).  This was in
the context of Russian and Georgian virtual attacks on each other's
military (and perhaps other essential) computer systems, the
precedent having been set (and value established) earlier by a
Russian attack on Estonian (I think) computer systems.  The guest on
NPR said that the total cost to Russia and Georgia may have been around $6,000.

So definitely sense (1) was in play here.   And I did not suggest
sense (2) above -- I cited OED "farm" v.2  sense 2.b. only.  It is
the bot herder who is "farming" -- getting the rental payments --
from the vandals, not the computer owners getting payment from the
bot herder (not believable, since the computers are being hijacked).

I do not rule out "bot herder" being applied also to the vandal
(corralling and employing his herd), but that is then an additional sense.

Joel


>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
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org