Have you ever wondered where all the spam that arrives in mailboxes comes from, via Email "> ways to send spam Email, already described in another article, is to infect as many computers as possible with a particular virus. spammer identifies the thousands of PCs around the world that are infected with malware and that are connected to the internet to exploit them in the automatic sending of promotional messages or pure spam. Such computers are called Zombies and are part of a network called Botnet .
When a person or company has an army of computers that they can control to perform certain online activities, these groups of machines are called " botnets ". Botnets are used to cause damage on the Internet so that it is practically impossible to track down the real author. The term Zombie, if referred to a computer, does not mean a dead and resurrected machine, but a system freely accessible and usable remotely from the outside .
A zombie pc can be used to carry out widespread computer crimes such as sending spam emails to millions of addresses or attacking a site to send it offline with the so-called Ddos attack.
It can be surprising to look at the Google Maps map how many zombie computers of botnets are active in the world today.
Most zombie computers are corporate or office servers that stay turned on 24 hours a day without anyone putting their hands on them.
The viruses that transform a computer into zombies, however, are capable of being invisible so it is easy for normal home PCs to be affected, used daily by unsuspecting users. Most PC owners don't even realize that their computers have been under the orders of another.
You are therefore sure that your computer is not a "zombie" inserted in a botnet "> guide on how to know if the computer is infected, it should be easy to find the symptoms of a virus, while with malware removal programs every infection should disappear .
The usual Malwarebytes Anti-Malware becomes the best scan tool to check if your pc is used in a botnet.
If you want to use a more specific program, in another article I had mentioned the De-cleaner, an anti-botnet control software for scanning and removing viruses that transform the computer into zombies.
S can also test to see if your network has been integrated into a botnet by checking the IP address on the Kaspersky website.
Generally speaking it is not so difficult to stay away from this kind of virus.
The important things to do are mainly 5:
- Always keep your Windows operating system up to date with the latest security patches that are released every Tuesday.
- Keep up to date the applications installed on the computer that use the internet connection (such as chats, web browsers, browser plugins, email clients and so on).
- Do a quick scan with Malwarebytes or other antivirus, every now and then, to make sure there are no problems.
- Using a firewall would be recommended, especially if the internet connection is direct and does not pass through a router.
- Do not browse strange sites and do not install programs of dubious origin.
To avoid this type of problem and to ward off any other infection, I recommend reading a computer's online security checklist and seeing if everything is protected.
