The government of India is offering free botnet detection and removal tools as part of its 'Cyber Swachhta Kendra', also known as Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre. Part of the Digital India initiative under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the project aims to create secure cyberspace by detecting botnet infections in India and helping people to clean and secure affected systems. According to the Cyber Swachhta Kendra website, the centre works in collaboration with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and antivirus companies and is operated by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). What is a botnet? 'Bot' is a type of malware that adds your machine to the 'botnet', which is basically a network of infected systems. When a device becomes part of the botnet, the hacker (botnet owner) can copy all data from the device, download malicious apps, block outgoing and incoming texts and calls, and even gain access to sensitive information like net banking details and usernames and passwords. To prevent your device from being infected by a bot, make sure you download apps only from trusted app stores or websites and avoid opening emails or links from unknown sources. How do I detect and remove botnets? To check if your system is infected by malware, download any of the free bot removal tools offered by the Cyber Swachhta Kendra. For Windows, the website currently lists three free botnet tools - eScan Antivirus, K7 Security and Quick Heal along with download links. If you want to check your Android device for infections, download the 'eScan CERT-IN Bot Removal' tool or 'M-Kavach 2' developed by C-DAC Hyderabad from the Google Play Store. Apart from botnet detection tools, users can also install 'USB Pratirodh', a utility for desktops that lets users control the use of removable storage media like cell phones, pen drives and other supported external storage devices. Whenever the user plugs in a new USB device, they are asked to authenticate it by entering a username and password. The tool can also be used to scan the USB device for malware, encrypt data and modify read/write privileges. AppSamvid is another application that allows Windows users to run only pre-approved files on the operating system. It can be used for whitelisting executables and Java files with an option to lock the user interface behind a password. The app can also help protect your operating system from malware such as viruses and trojans.
