They silently enter our computer equipment, lodge and remain for years, and can at any time be used to steal credentials and available information, which can ultimately be used for criminal actions. Malware exploits the weaknesses of the installed system, which is why it is important to keep applications and programs up to date, but they usually enter the system in the form of a phishing email, an infected file, an infected USB stick or access to a malicious website.
The referenced Phorpiex is in the malware family considered as a botnet, which in a simple way can be defined as a logical collection of devices connected to the Internet, such as computers, smartphones or Internet of Things (IoT) devices whose security has been violated and the control ceded to third parties. Each compromised device, known as a “bot”, is created when a device is invaded by software from a malware distribution.
A botnet controller is able to direct the activities of these compromised computers through communication channels made up of standards-based network protocols such as IRC and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). In practice, it takes control of the equipment remotely and with very little chance of being detected by a layman or carefree user.
Phorpiex is an enduring botnet, active since 2010, known for extortion campaigns and using old-fashioned worms that spread via removable USB drives and instant messaging applications. In recent years it has started to diversify its infrastructure to become more resilient and deliver more dangerous payloads. Today, the Phorphiex botnet continues to maintain a large network of bots and generates wide-ranging malicious activities, which traditionally included extortion and spam activities and expanded to include cryptocurrency mining.
Today they are increasingly rented by computer criminals, with a growing "black market" for those who want to have access to information from the computer of another person or entity. Anyone who wants to get into your computer, if you don't have the necessary defenses, doesn't need to know about computers, you just need to find who's already inside.
