The 2025 Botnet Trend Report by NSFOCUS reveals a surge in botnet sophistication, marked by increased modularization, stealth, and AI integration. Mirai remains dominant, but emerging families like hailBot, Necro, and XorDDoS show advanced cross-platform propagation and evasion capabilities. Botnets are increasingly used for DDoS, crypto-mining, ransomware, and proxy services, with 68% of global infections linked to IoT devices. The U.S., China, and Brazil were most affected. New trends include the use of zero-day exploits, decentralized command structures, and AI-driven control. NSFOCUS predicts botnets will merge with APT tactics, expand into mobile ecosystems, and leverage large language models for adaptive attacks.

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