njRat (not New Jersey Rat) Malware - infect 24K computers, and is used by 487 groups.

This is the downside of (evil)code that can easily be ported or shared.

According to the article:-

"Symantec analysed 721 samples of njRAT and uncovered a fairly large number of infections, with 542 control and command (C&C) server domain names found and 24,000 infected computers worldwide," read the post.

"Nearly 80 percent of the C&C servers were located in regions in the Middle East and North Africa, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories and Libya. 

The malware grants hackers basic powers, such as the ability to download and execute additional malware on infected systems, execute shell commands, read and write registry keys, capture screenshots, log keystrokes and hijack control of webcams.

The link below has more information:-

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2337382/middle-eastern-hackers-use-remote-access-trojan-to-infect-24-000-machines-worldwide

Why re-invent the wheel, when you can steal from others - NSA Hijacks Botnets.

SNIPPETS from the Article:-

NSA isn’t just building its own botnet. Since August 2007 it’s had a program called QUANTUMBOT dedicated to taking over the command-and-control systems of existing, but idle, bots. One top secret slide describes the program as “highly successful” with “over 140,000 bots co-opted.”

 Computer security researcher Nicholas Weaver theorizes the agency could use bot software as a “deniable implant” – if you find your computer slaved to a known hacker botnet, you’re not likely to suspect the most sophisticated intelligence agency in the world is behind it. At least, not until now.

The links below has more information:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2014/03/nsa-botnet/