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Re: [News] [Rival] Police Chasing Tiny Portions of 320,000,000 Windows Zombie

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____/ TomB on Monday 04 August 2008 11:35 : \____

> On 2008-08-04, Mark Kent wrote:
>> TomB <tommy.bongaerts@xxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> On 2008-08-04, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>> 
>>>>| USA TODAY REPORTS that on an average day, 40 per cent of the 800 million
>>>>| computers connected to the Internet are bots used to send out spam,
>>>>| viruses and to mine for sensitive personal data.
>>> 
>>> 800 million computers? At 1% that means about 8 million computers
>>> runnig GNU/Linux - which btw are among the not infected ones.
>>> 
>>> I'd say that's a pretty big user base for an "hobby" OS :-)
>>> 
>>
>> Interesting observation...  as mobility devices and appliances grow, so
>> those numbers will rise.  In fact, I suspect that the 800 mio number
>> above ignores most appliances.
>>
> 
> What strikes me most is the sheer number of "zombie" computers, of
> which most are probably Windows systems. Fourty freaking percent?
> About 320 mio computers sending out spam and the likes? That's just
> plain terrible. I'm so glad GNU/Linux "forces" me to be at least a bit
> tech-savvy; at least *I* know what's coming in and going out of my
> computers...
> 
On a daily basis, according to one source, 10 million are used to SPAM (not
enough people to operate all) and they keep moving from one group of 10 or so
million to another... so it's like half of the world's PCs are a pool to pick
from. There's hardly a way to ever cure this.

See this from 2004:

Home PCs hijacked to spread spam

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/technology/3528810.stm

There's reportedly a drop in the number of zombies over Xmas when people find
the time to "wipe and reinstall" or receive a new PC.

- -- 
                ~~ Best of wishes

Roy S. Schestowitz      |    "Lions are like hippie tigers"
http://Schestowitz.com  |    RHAT Linux     |     PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
 13:20:01 up 13 days, 23:26,  2 users,  load average: 0.90, 0.88, 0.83
      http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
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