Imagine if those annoying teen-agers and vandals that spray-paint your house and leave burning bags of dog poop on your front doorstep suddenly realized that they could simply walk in the door and set up a crack house inside.

That's what's happening in the world of hacking, as folks discover that not only can they get the thrills of breaking into peoples' systems and trashing them, they can actually make money, too.

One indication of the going rate for zombie PCs comes from a June 11 posting on SpecialHam.com, an electronic forum for spammers. The asking price for use of a network of 20,000 zombie PCs: $2,000 to $3,000. Such networks typically are used to broadcast spam and phishing scams and to spread e-mail viruses designed mainly to create yet more zombies.

What are zombies (in this context, at least)? PCs that have been compromised by hackers. But rather than just destroying files or stealing credit card numbers, the hackers have left in back doors where they can send commands to have the "zombie" PCs suddenly do something -- like send out the spam mailings of their choice -- for which, of course, the hackers can then get paid. All the owner of the PC might notice is some performance degradation at times, and, abruptly, their Internet service being cancelled by their ISP.

As if it needs repeating, make sure you have a decent home firewall and anti-virus software, not to mention anti-spyware software. And keep them updated. 'Nuff said.

(via Les)

Filed under :: Spam