butterfly 0 Posted October 22, 2008 Hi Dreamster. According to Tony Bradley of About. com "A 'bot' is a type of malware which allows an attacker to gain complete control over the affected computer. Computers that are infected with a 'bot' are generally referred to as 'zombies'. There are literally tens of thousands of computers on the Internet which are infected with some type of 'bot' and don't even realize it. Attackers are able to access lists of 'zombie' PC's and activate them to help execute DoS (denial-of-service) attacks against Web sites, host phishing attack Web sites or send out thousands of spam email messages. Should anyone trace the attack back to its source, they will find an unwitting victim rather than the true attacker. One of the best defenses against threats like these is to run anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your computer. It is important that you update the software frequently though. The authors of malware such as 'bots' constantly update and revise their attacks to evade detection and bypass measures like anti-virus and anti-spyware utilities. You should also make sure you keep your operating system and applications patched against known vulnerabilities and use a personal firewall program of some sort to shield your computer from unauthorized access." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
