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Sep 4 2008 10:38AM EDT

Another PC Zombie Attack Coming Soon?

THIS POST HAS BEEN CORRECTED.
Blaise Zerega warns that these Zombies are not on Facebook.  The number of Zombie PCs -- those infected with malware and capable of being herded for malicious botnet attacks -- has quadrupled in the past three months according to the U.K.'s Register, citing a new report from Shadowserver, which tracks these scary developments.

Zombie PCs can be directed for a variety of purposes. One recent, high profile incident: compromised PCs were used for a denial of service attack (DoS) that crippled Georgia's government sites in a cyberwar that coincided with an invasion by Russian troops in mid-August.

The number of potential zombie PCs has grown from 100,000 to 400,000. It's too early to say if the increase is a part of a concerted effort by botnet gangsters or to guess for what purpose these machines might be marshalled. Shadowserver says that the rise might be attributable to botnet herders becoming more adept at infecting PCs.

In a bit of irony, a site with a similar name to The Register in the U.K., Register.com, was a victim itself in a high-profile DoS attack in January 2001.


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