Is your in-box overflowing with spam? Could be the work of a bot-herder

With my inbox saturated by the latest spam wave I went looking for answers. Why I wondered did I need so much cheap medication or so many enlargements all of a sudden? What I discovered were bots, bot-nets and bot-herders.

A bot is a personal computer that has been infected with malicious software allowing it to be controlled remotely by a bot-herder. Usually the owner of the infected machine is completely unaware that he or she is at the beck and call of a bot-herder. The bot-herder builds up a network of computers called a bot-net with which they rip off personal information or send bulk spam.

But never fear, the FBI is on the case. Operation BOT-Roast was launched in June this year to crack down on the bot-herders. The FBI claim to have uncovered more than a million hijacked PC’s and arrested three bot-herders.  Actually the FBI has some quite sensible tips for protecting your computer (such as turning it off when you’re not using it). They’re available at… http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june07/botnet061307.htm

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 1:47 pm and is filed under ITBits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.