Researchers in Canada created a botnet strictly for experimental purposes. The experiment recreated an isolated version of the Waledac botnet. The goal was to gather information about the botnet in order to understand as much as possible about its architecture and modes of operation. Researchers also launched what they called a’sybil’ attack against the network to see how it would impact it. They found the attack was successful due to characteristics of the network’s P2P protocol the network uses for command and control.”]
Source: https://www.csoonline.com/article/2126511/researchers-create-botnet-to-learn-how-it-works.html