Is your computer part of a ‘botnet’, or one of tens or even hundreds of thousands of compromised computers, under the control of one of the ‘bad guys’ using your computer to commit Internet fraud and other crimes?

Botnets, which have been around for some time now and are an increasingly growing threat to all Internet users, can also be used to send spam to us all, using individual’s computers to send out spam messages, making the originators of the spam that much harder to track down. They’re also used to scan our PCs for banking and other financial information, or install keyloggers to capture the passwords we use every day, to be used in identity theft and to commit other crimes.

Hackers are no longer just using the Internet to show off programming skills to other hackers. It’s no longer a case of glory, but of criminal financial gain. The rise of botnets has security experts concerned that the battle has already been lost.

In a comprehensive article at the New York Times on the issue, one security researcher had intercepted a 200mb file containing all kinds of sensitive private data that had been harvested from compromised computers. It had been sitting in a secret location, awaiting download.

According to the New York Times, “The data in the file had been collected during a 30-day period, according to Rick Wesson, chief executive of Support Intelligence, a San Francisco-based company that sells information on computer security threats to corporations and federal agencies”.

The article continues that: “The data came from 793 infected computers and it generated 54,926 log-in credentials and 281 credit-card numbers. The stolen information affected 1,239 companies, he said, including 35 stock brokerages, 86 bank accounts, 174 e-commerce accounts and 245 e-mail accounts”.

Frighteningly, Mr Wesson continues on that “Sensor information collected by his company is now able to identify more than 250,000 new botnet infections daily. We are losing this war badly. Even the vendors understand that we are losing the war.”

What can you do about the problem? Make sure that you are running the latest version of your favourite Internet security software. Ensure you have anti-spyware software installed, such as Microsoft’s free ‘Windows Defender’ for Windows XP SP2 systems http://www.microsoft.com/antispyware. But even if you’re using that, or if you have an older computer, but still want some protection, it’s worth using the free Spybot http://www.safer-networking.com or AdAware http://www.lavasoftusa.com.

Ensure that your computer system is set to automatically update itself, and ensure that you are using the very latest versions of your favourite Internet browser, such as IE7, Firefox 2.0, Opera 9, Safari and others.

You can also use TrustDefender http://www.trustdefender.com to validate that the websites you are visiting are the ones you intended to visit, so you won’t be the victim of a phishing attack.

Make sure you are using a spam filter, and ensure that you have it regularly update itself as well. Microsoft Outlook 2003 users are reminded that Microsoft relatively regularly posts ‘junk mail’ scanning updates at the Microsoft Office website, along with a series of other patches and updates to Microsoft Office in general.

Also make sure that other software such as iTunes, Real Player, Adobe Acrobat Reader and all else that you use is regularly set to update to the latest version, or at the very least to notify you so that you are able to update and close any discovered security holes.

No doubt the botnet makers are doing all they can to stay one step ahead of us all. Make sure you have a backup system that regularly and automatically backs up your data to a removable drive, such as  USB 2.0 hard drive, especially in case your computer becomes affected and proves difficult to clean.

Re-installing Windows is always painful, but if you have to end up doing that, remember to have all of your security software ready to install before you connect to the Internet, and as soon as you do connect to the Internet for the first time, you update Windows immediately with all of the latest security updates, and update all of your other software, too.

The World Wide Web truly has become the Wild Wild Web. Software and hardware manufacturers are doing their utmost to keep us protected, although sometimes they slip up and take their sweet time to patch what has become a known vulnerability that the hackers are already taking advantage of.

But in the meantime, do all you can to keep your computer as secure as possible through the tips above. Seek professional assistance from the Geek Squad or a similar organisation if you need to, or you know family and friends that need the service.

And consider upgrading to the latest computer and operating system when you can for the most up-to-date operating system protection.
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