Like a bad horror movie, this holiday season is shaping up to be one filled with zombies. These zombies are being controlled by evil secret organizations hidden in Russia and China. It is looking so bad, the US Department of Homeland defense has issued a warning alert.
Trust me, I am not making this up.
San Jose Mercury News reports McAfee saying that spam volumes have increased by 141%. There has been a surge of virus infected spam over the summer, reaching record levels. Now here come the zombies.
The spammers aren't trying to get you to buy anything. That is so last year. Today, spammers are attempting to infect your computer with a virus and turning it into a zombie. When your computer is turned into a zombie, it is now controlled by an outside entity. Often your computer is scoured for financial data which is then sent back to the masters who drain your bank account. Your zombie computer is also brought into a botnet. Like the droids in Episode I, a botnet is a collection of computers that have been taken over and now all work for a single purpose, to send out more spam. McAfee reports that over 14 million computers became enslaved as zombies and merged into botnets during the second quarter of 2009.
The US Department of Homeland Defense has issued a warning about one spam attack that is being launched by zombies. It appears as an email from the IRS. They attempt to trick you to opening an attachment or visiting a website. Don't do it!
The reason I bring this up now is because the approaching holidays means a slew of well intended electronic greeting cards will be sent out expressing holiday good wishes. My advice is don't send them and if you get one don't open it.
I get a holiday greeting e-card from a dear friend every year. And every year I delete it without opening. I don't have the heart to tell him that I'm deleting his e-cards. He sends them at Christmas and even remembers my birthday, but I don't open them. It just isn't worth the risk.
The latest tactic is to create actual Anti-Virus software sites where you can download their A/V software. But they are really viruses pretending to be a A/V company. If you install the software it even runs a scan of your computer and then reports false viruses. My advice, stick with well knowns and don't try to save a couple of bucks. I recommend Kaspersky www.kaspersky.com, but go with any brand name and kill the zombies before they get you.
