Once established, botnets can be leased to other criminals for DoS attacks.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Unknown
• D. Not applicable

Answer: (A)

The main idea tested is that botnets are not just silent tools used by a single attacker; they can be monetized by renting out their resources to others who want to carry out attacks. A botnet is a network of compromised devices controlled by a botmaster through a command-and-control channel. Once such a network is established, the operator can market access to it as a service, allowing others to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. This “botnet-for-hire” or DDoS-for-hire model is widely observed in cybersecurity, with attackers paying for time, bandwidth, or number of attacking nodes to target a chosen victim. The distributed nature of the botnet provides a large pool of diverse sources, making it harder for defenders to mitigate the attack, and the control infrastructure enables scheduling, targeting, and billing.

So, the statement is true because there is a proven market and practical use case for leasing botnets to conduct DoS attacks.