30,000 ZOMBIES a day
 

Zombie computers! they've been among us for a while but they are growing faster now than ever before, up from 2000 new zombies a day to 30,000 new zombies every day.

As the internet gets more and more infested with parasites and predators we can expect our porn profits to drop- and not just by sales taken from spammers and toolbars using the zombie networks, from the growing fear of the internet among mom and pop and the college kids as security issues increase.

All biological living systems evolve parasites, and then evolve defenses, but there is a lag time between the parasite and the defense. Now our nearly alive information systems are developing a nasty new species of parasites, and it will take a while, probably years, before our defenses increase to stave off this infestation.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996420

Thousands of zombie PCs created daily

20 September 04

NewScientist.com news service

The rate at which personal computers are being hijacked by hackers rocketed in the first half of 2004, reveals a new report. An average of 30,000 computers per day were turned into enslaved “zombies”, compared with just 2000 per day in 2003.

US computer security company Symantec says efforts to build so-called "botnets" - networks of zombies used to launch attacks on corporate websites or as anonymous relays for sending out spam - from hacked computers have intensified dramatically in recent months. The company's latest biannual report shows that recruitment of "zombie" machines peaked at 75,000 computers per day.

Jeremy Ward, service development manager at Symantec, says virus writers can make good money by selling botnets to online extortionists and spammers.

"What we're seeing now is malware, or malicious software, that is truly professional," Ward told New Scientist. "You have the ability to set up botnets for a number of money-making schemes."

One very simple answer… buy a Mac.

It's a sad and dangerous state of affairs :(

DD

Does owning a Mac protect you what from the infestations and all that other crap that I just read about?

Pretty much. So far.

Mac and linux are probably inherently safer than MS could ever be.

Still somewhat more expensive and difficult to use to run adult businesses.

But Cleo does fine with the mac. I imagine starting out used to it helps.

They're coming for you...and they want to eat your braaiinnss.

Cleo, if a high % of people do buy a Mac then Mac OS would be targetted in the same manner Windows is. :(

If every Windows box came with FireFox as the default browser it would help quite a bit.

I put FF on my father's computer and deleted all the shortcuts to IE.

SpyBot and AdAware have very little to find now.

The best thing that could happen for Mac users is that it stays on the "down low".

God help the souls who casually pick up a computer and don't know to update their antivirus, or spyware programs...IF they have them.