Zombie Computers

The New York Times ran an important article yesterday on botnets, titled Attack of the Zombie Computers Is Growing Threat. The bad guys "are taking advantage of programs that secretly install themselves on thousands or even millions of personal computers, band these computers together into an unwitting army of zombies, and use the collective power of the dragooned network to commit Internet crimes." One disheartening story tells of a woman who turned off her computer's security because it slowed down her PC. Sigh. Free registration is necessary to read the article.