WyzGuys Tech Talk

Here is a heart-warming tidbit from Mike Masnick at Good Morning Silicon Valley

Zombies rising: Be very afraid — or at least be very vigilant. The Shadowserver Foundation, whose self-described mission is to "gather intelligence on the darker side of the Internet," says the number of zombies, or hijacked computers, rose threefold to more than 450,000 in the past three months. The zombies become part of botnets, or groups of computers that can be used to perform a certain task or achieve a certain goal, in many cases illegal ones. What can you do? Don’t let the evildoers seize control of your computer — the majority of them PCs running Windows — by watching where you surf and what you invite/download to your computer. Seems basic, right, but it’s always worth reminding people.

Many times a week I am asked by a client, student, or business associate about the nature of Internet threats, and I have maintained for at least the last two years, the real dangers come from organized criminal groups whose goal it is to part your from your cash.  I recently attended a webinar sponsored by AVG, and their presenter showed a slide the corroborated my position.

Ages of Malicious Code

• Age 1 – 1987 – 1995 – Dos viruses
• Age 2 – 1995 – 2000 – Macro viruses
• Age 3 – 1999 – 2002 – Mass mailing worms
• Age 4 – 2001 – 2004 – Bots and worms
• Age 5 – 2004 – ? – Web based attacks

Why?

• Age 1 – fun
• Age 2 – fun
• Age 3 – fun and profit (spam and botnets)
• Age 4 – fun and profit (spam, botnets, adware, spyware)
• Age 5 – profit only (they want your money)

The thing to do is to keep your computer up-to-date with Microsoft Updates, and that you are running a paid-for version of a leading Internet Security Product.  Make sure your subscription is up-to-date, and that you have the latest virus and spyware definitions.  And make sure you are running full system scans.  Then you should be secure, and NOT participating in he rise of the BotNets