[TIPS] Criminals 'may overwhelm the web'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6298641.stm

In today's Kim Komando News email was this one about botnets. According to this article, as much as 1/4 of all computers worldwide on the Internet are 'bots - robot computers.

 

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Botnets are made up of large numbers of computers that malicious hackers have brought under their control after infecting them with so-called Trojan virus programs.

While most owners are oblivious to the infection, the networks of tens of thousands of computers are used to launch spam e-mail campaigns, denial-of-service attacks or online fraud schemes.

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How does this happen? You'd be amazed at the number of people who have NO up-to-date antivirus software installed on their computer, or who have no firewalls. Are YOU one? Of course not. That's THOSE people, right? :-) Bottom line - YOU M-U-S-T have an up-to-date antivirus program on your computer and you M-U-S-T make sure you've got a firewall! Minimum!! Don't be part of the problem.