A Cisco researcher interviews a botnet operator.
As the botmaster stated, running a botnet was his business. The criminality of running a botnet was simply a by-product of his primary means of employment. The botmaster’s product is a management interface to a multinode network that can be sold to other customers for a profit. Perceiving himself as a small business owner, the botmaster is not concerned with impacting the functionality of a user’s personal computer or with the possibilities of identity theft or data leakage, but instead with generating income.