30,000 PC's Turned Into Zombies Daily
Posted: 20th Sep, 2004 By: MarkJ
Symantec reports that Internet viruses and Trojans are turning over 30,000 computers per day into zombies that dish out SPAM and viruses, just six months earlier this figure was closer to 2,000!:
Nigel Beighton, a member of Symantec's Threat Team, said the number of PCs being enrolled in these networks was the stand out statistic for the latest report which covers the first six months of 2004. The peak of new recruits was 75,000 in one day.
This high watermark was hit when the creators of the MyDoom and Bagle viruses were conducting an online war that resulted in many different versions of their malicious programs being released.
Once created the networks of zombie PCs are used as anonymous relays for spam, to launch denial of service attacks on websites or simply to steal confidential information about a PC's owner.
The BBC News Online item also carries with it some disturbing statistics. Some four and a half thousand MS Windows based viruses were detected during the first half of 2004, which is over four times the volume in 2003.
Interestingly it now takes hackers an average of 6 days to exploit a new vulnerability, most of which can be rated as very severe.
Nigel Beighton, a member of Symantec's Threat Team, said the number of PCs being enrolled in these networks was the stand out statistic for the latest report which covers the first six months of 2004. The peak of new recruits was 75,000 in one day.
This high watermark was hit when the creators of the MyDoom and Bagle viruses were conducting an online war that resulted in many different versions of their malicious programs being released.
Once created the networks of zombie PCs are used as anonymous relays for spam, to launch denial of service attacks on websites or simply to steal confidential information about a PC's owner.
The BBC News Online item also carries with it some disturbing statistics. Some four and a half thousand MS Windows based viruses were detected during the first half of 2004, which is over four times the volume in 2003.
Interestingly it now takes hackers an average of 6 days to exploit a new vulnerability, most of which can be rated as very severe.
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