Think of the internet like a sprawling metropolis. It is vibrant, diverse, and arguably the most impressive place on Earth. It is also deeply seedy. You can walk past world-class libraries only to stumble into underground theaters that have no place in polite society.
The danger here is anonymity. People lie. And sometimes, you lie without knowing it.
Like the unwitting agent in The Manchurian Candidate, you might find yourself acting on someone else’s orders. You have no idea how it happened. You certainly don’t know how to stop it.
Enter the zombie computer.
A zombie computer is exactly that agent. A cracker —a hacker with malicious intent—slips into your machine. They take the wheel. They use your hardware to run illegal scripts. You sit there. You can still use the computer. It might run a bit slower. You might notice the fan spinning up. But you are blind to the theft.
Your machine starts blasting out spam emails or DDoS attacks against websites. You become the prime suspect. Investigators trace the traffic back to your IP address. They do not see the cracker behind the screen. They see you.
The consequences are real. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may terminate your contract. You could face criminal charges. The cracker? He does not care. He has thousands of these zombies. One recent investigation revealed a single server controlling a botnet of 1.5 million compromised machines.
This article explains how crackers hijack your PC, why they want your processing power, and how to keep your device free from their control.
