Command and control (malware)

In the field of computer security, command and control (C&C) infrastructure consists of servers and other technical infrastructure used to control malware. Command and control servers may be either directly controlled by the malware operators, or themselves run on hardware compromised by malware. Fast-flux DNS can be used as a way to make it difficult to track down the control servers, which may change from day to day. In some cases, C&C networks can be overlaid on other existing benign infrastructure such as IRC or Tor, or peer-to-peer networking systems may be used to create C&C systems that are not dependent on any fixed servers at all.