Surge in PC Hijacking says Research
March 20th, 2007 by pamela
The number of computers being hijacked in order to be used in sending our spam and viruses has surged according to report at BBC News, with a 30% increase in the past year.
Research from security firm Symantec found that almost 6 million computers across the world are being used as part of a ‘bot network’, with most computer owners entirely unaware that their PC have been hijacked.
The report indicated that more than one third of all attacks come from the US, with the growing online populations in countries such as China and Spain contributing to the rise in the number of infected computers.
Although the number of infected computers rose in the past year, the number of servers controlling them fell, suggesting that hackers are consolidating their attack structure.
Ollie Whitehouse, senior consulting services director at Symantec, said: “There is almost an educational curve that the users and service providers have to go through. Unfortunately when certain countries go through rapid increases in connectivity and availability of technology that curve is not always kept up.”
Posted in Technical |
