Storm Botnet

What is a Botnet? And, why should I care? A botnet is network of computers that hackers control. They gain control, primarily, by sending out spam that has a link to their website. Once the email recipient clicks the link, the website downloads a virus that gives control of the computer to the hacker.

One particular botnet is called Storm, and it is estimated to have 1 million to 10 million computers attached. To give you an idea of the size, this botnet, from a computing standpoint, dwarfs the largest supercomputers since it has more disk space, more RAM, and far more bandwidth. Once a hacker has control of a botnet, they sell its services to send spam, attack servers, or any other number of devious uses. For more information visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_botnet
For a video of the initial infection, visit http://find.pcworld.com/58935

This is yet another reminder that we need to be very careful. Specifically, we should never click links in emails that we are not sure about, never open spam, have good internet content filters, good layered AV software, and good spam filters.