Night of the Virus-Infected Zombie Computer
Charles Johnson
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 4:55 pm PDT • Views: 246
Our post about zombie combat may have confused a few readers, but here’s a zombie threat that’s not a joke: Zombie Computers Decried As Imminent National Threat.
SAN FRANCISCO — Gangs of thousands of zombie home computers grinding out spam, committing fraud and overpowering websites are the most vexing net threat today, according to law enforcement and security professionals.
Today’s botnet herders have hundreds of thousands of computers at their command and use technically sophisticated ways to hide their headquarters, making it easy for them to make millions from spam and credit card theft. They can also be used to direct floods of fake traffic at a targeted website in order to bring down a rival, extract protection money or less frequently, used to make a political point in the case of attacks on Estonia and the Church of Scientology.
Security pros and government officials are now describing the latter attacks, known as Distributed Denial of Service attacks, as serious threats to national security — turning packet floods against public websites into the latest face of “cyberwar” hysteria.
Frank says: