Other LanguagesBeware – evil Zombies are lurking on the WWW -("wicked" wide Web)! If you don’t protect your PC, yours may become haunted.
The Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Action and Microsoft this week sent out a warning to consumers not to be tricked into installing malicious code that may be diguised in e-mail attachments and music and video downloads:
While the zombies of Hollywood B-movie fame are easily identifiable by their gruesome appearance and menacing groans, zombie computers are silent stalkers. People who use the Internet but don’t properly protect their PCs from computer criminals may never know that their machines have been compromised – even after their infected machines begin causing problems for other people and, potentially, themselves.
Botnets, which can include as many as 100,000 individual zombie computers, can distribute spam e-mail, spread viruses, attack other computers and servers and commit other kinds of crime and fraud. In less than three weeks, a zombie computer in Microsoft’s lab received more than 5 million requests to send 18 million spam e-mails.
Stop zombie attacks. Defend your computer.
- Build a firewall to block hackers.
- Install computer security updates to shield computers from viruses, worms and other threats.
- Use up-to-date antivirus software to help protect against the latest threats.
- Get anti-spyware software – and watch out for “scareware.”
- Be cautious about opening attachments or downloading files from unknown senders.
- See our Internet Safety site for more tips.