AntiBot Software for the Average Person to Fight Botnet Attacks

Reports suggest that 40% of computers hooked up to the internet on a typical day are infected by bots. That estimated number of computers is 800 million.

This excerpt from the Norton website tells you what a bot is.

"What is a Bot?

A "bot" is a type of malware that allows an attacker to take control over an affected computer. Also known as "Web robots", bots are usually part of a network of infected machines, known as a "botnet", which is typically made up of victim machines that stretch across the globe

Since a bot infected computer does the bidding of its master, many people refer to these victim machines as "zombies." The cybercriminals that control these bots are called botherders or botmasters.

Some botnets might have a few hundred or a couple thousand computers, but others have tens and even hundreds of thousands of zombies at their disposal. Many of these computers are infected without their owners' knowledge. Some possible warning signs? A bot might cause your computer to slow down, display mysterious messages, or even crash."

Online fraud is increasing by the use of bots in emails spreading viruses and phishing attacks. The botnets have perfected denial of service attacks which essentially shut down targeted websites by bombarding them with nuisance requests. This is a form of what is now termed cyberextortion.

You can at least keep up with the latest software to try to protect your own computer from attacks by botnets. If you have any personal data on your computer and that is most people then you need to be aware of the growing botnet problem.