Increasing use of botnets presents managed IT security providers with a wide range of challenges, it has been claimed.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at network security group Sophos, commented that 99 per cent of all spam is sent via botnets rather than spammers own computers, meaning that consumers could innocently be passing on malicious content.
He added: "It is a prime way in which criminals these days commit crime and there're a variety of different things you can do once you have a botnet. Perhaps the most obvious one is to send spam."
Mr Cluley went on to say that this can create a lot of money for hackers and people in charge of botnets, who have been sent to jail for considerable lengths of time.
Earlier this month the BBC reported that software used to control thousands of home computers can be acquired online via chatrooms.