Study: Number of Zombie PCs Jumps

Zombie PCs, or computers that have been infected with software that allows the machine to be used to spread viruses and software, have increased at an astronomical rate in the last quarter according to research by antivirus company McAfee.

The jump may signify that a large chunk of computer users are either not using some form of antivirus protection, or may be too careless in their Internet activities. The number of PCs infected jumped 303 percent in the second quarter from the first three months of 2005.

"You're not hearing about a major outbreak every month, but people are not aware that there has become a much more subversive way that virus writers are spreading around the Internet," Vincent Gullotto, vice president of McAfee's Antivirus and Vulnerability Emergency Response Team (AVERT) told IDG.

In many cases, the computer user may not even notice if their computer has been infected, other than some slowness of their Internet connection or degradation in system performance.

Gullotto's team also recorded a 12 percent increase in PUPs, or potentially unwanted programs such as spyware and adware. Particularly, the AVERT team noticed that money making schemes were becoming increasingly common, including a way to take over certain files, lock them, and then demand a ransom to decrypt the files.

The research team also says that cyber crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated. And in recent months cyber gangs have become much bigger, where the "groups of career criminals and hackers agree to cooperate, plan and execute long term attack strategies that are of little interest to the socially-motivated hacker or script kiddy."

Gulloto said that the increasing problem of cyber crime is highlighting the need for better vigilance. "Consumers and enterprises are becoming more and more aware of the need for various security technologies to protect their machines and networks," he said.