Zombie Computers Roam The world wide web.

Spyware and viruses are so common that you would be hard pressed to find anyone that isn’ t aware of them. Under the umbrella phrase Malware, these little programs have been causing trouble for computer users for many years, and they seem to get more powerful everyday. A new incarnation of malware has become very common as of late, and it involves using a virus or trojan horse to put a computer under the rural of a hacker. The controlled computer is referred to as a zombie and it is used to commit various dastardly deeds without worrying about the knowledge of the personal computer owner.
Zombie computers are almost always attached to the Internet using a broadband connection such while DSL or Satellite Web-based. This is important as spammers have discovered that by using zombie computers to send their junk mail they'll easily avoid detection. As of 2005 it was estimated that as much as 80% of all junk mail was sent via zombie personal computers, and that number is on the rise.
The increase can be attributed to smarter hackers and healthier technology, but the actual driving causes behind any increased zombie trend are usually better spam filters together with anti-spam laws. According in order to Tom Spring at DESKTOP World Magazine, “ spammers are hiring virus writers and hackers to help them create armies from zombie PCs to send spam. ” This union of hackers and spammers has been beneficial to both parties in opening new revenue steams which are extremely difficult to shut down.
Gregg Mastoras, a senior security analyst at the security firm Sophos reveals, “ A new underground economy is evolving. " This new economy is for the most part illegal and to date impossible to stop completely.
As of late this Chinese hackers have thrown their hat to the game and have considered the zombie computer business to the next level. Senior Pentagon Advisor Paul Strassmann recently stated, “ As of September 14th 2007 there were exactly 735, 598 computers in the united states infested with Chinese zombies”.
Large groups of zombie computers can be used to form a “ botnet” or network of slave computer systems. This network can supply to send out many spam mails in a brief period of time. Slave networks are also used to commit some DoS attack. DoS attacks, or Denial of Service, target a particular blog and overwhelm the server having information requests until the server can no longer handle the load. These attacks or in no way secretive, and once discovered are easily shut down. There will be a period of time however when site traffic will be disrupted by the DoS breach. Larger more sophisticated networks such as those used by governments or large firms have defensive measures in position to prevent damage from the DoS attack.