Twelve Million Zombie Computers Since January

Digital Trend ^ | Christopher Nickson | May 07, 2009

[ShadowAce]

[VR-21]

Bookmarked

[brytlea]

I am pretty stupid about this stuff. Would you know if your computer was a zombie?

[annalex]

I have a recurring issue on one XP Home laptop. A rootkit is repeatedly infecting atrac.dll; Norton doesn’t seem to even detect it. I got an antivirus from PCTools, and that disables it, but fails to delete or quarantine it. Another computer on the home network is on Symantec and is fine.

Anyone experienced anything similar?

[null and void]

OMG! We need a zombie plan!!!!

[ShadowAce]

Would you know if your computer was a zombie?

Yes. It start moaning for "brainzzzzz"

[mmichaels1970]

Would you know if your computer was a zombie?

It would go "coin Coin COIN!"...just kidding, bit of Scooby Doo humor never hurts.

Run a malware scan on it. Like from malwarebytes.org or trendmicro.com.

If your computer is grinding, especially when you are on the internet. If you receive tons of spam or popups, then you can be reasonably sure you are infected with malware. Just because you pay annually for a product like McAfee doesn't mean you're safe. I recommend a routine scan with a free tool like the ones I mentioned above to stay as clean and secure as possible.

[Mr. K]

With the internet now hooked into everything... trusted to run it all.. it is only time before it became self- aware...

So I suggest life in prison or even capital punishment for hackers who release viruses.

BUT!!! these are the same people who FIND these leaks in the system, so I also suggest a substantial cah reward for anyoine who can find BUT NOT RELEASE a virus loophole.

I worked and went to school with many of these assholes.

The 30 year old living in his parents basement IS correct but there is a mangerial level who control them for these beusinss ventures.

[a fool in paradise]

Did it vote for Obama?

[A Texan]

Freak’n zombie computers!!! Bring it on bitches!!!

PS Regular zombies die when you cut off their head and blow out their brains, how the hell do you kill a zombie computer?

[Billthedrill]

Keep your antivirus current and run a free malware check from time to time and you’ll be fine. Watch for unusual disk or network activity - lights on your router (if you have one) when you’re not expecting them. Maybe it’s Microsoft or RedHat updates; maybe it’s some clown using your box to mail porn or do a denial-of-service attack. You’ll get lots of suggestions on this thread, I haven’t a doubt.

[brytlea]

Thank you for the actual helpful post!

[ShadowAce]

Perhaps it’s the malware and virii that is preventing the Net from becoming self-aware.

[a fool in paradise]

There are also countries behind such attacks. And I suspect people on competing platforms (Linux, Mac) who do such things in a “foreign” environment (MS) so as not to pee in their own swimming pool.

[Mr Fuji]

This wasn’t what I had in mind when I think about fighting “zombies” with my AR.

[brytlea]

No....

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

I had a nasty memory-resident infection of something similar on my computer once.

Remove your current AV, and install Avast and that Malwarebytes software. Both are free for home use.

Run a scan and see if this helps.

[mmichaels1970]

it is only time before it became self- aware... So I suggest life in prison or even capital punishment for hackers who release viruses.

Since it's self-aware, should we imprison the internet as well? ;)

[brytlea]

Thanks. I did have a trojan the other day (I think that’s the correct term). Luckily I called my son and he walked me thru a cure. It’s only the second thing I’ve ever had in all my years online, but I suspect it was just a matter of time.