The botnet stripped naked and exposed

Have you ever wondered exactly how a botnet works? A wotnet, you ask? A botnet, I say. You know, the thing that your computer might well be a part of, without your knowledge or approval, which is used to launch distributed denial of service attacks, send spam, distribute malware and above all else make the criminal gangs that control them lots and lots of money. Now are you ever so slightly curious as to how a botnet works, how it does the Borg thing and assimilates your computing resources, what damage it does, how much money it makes and how you can prevent yourself from being just another statistic? Thought so.