A recent New York Times article estimates that as much as 80% of spam messages are sent out by the computers of ordinary individuals who have no idea their computers have been converted into ‘zombies’.

A zombie computer is one infected with malware that silently sends out thousands of emails from the owner’s email address.

Infected ‘zombie’ computers, are organized by spammers into small groups called botnets. The ‘zombie’ malware threat is expected to continue to grow both in number and variety over the next few years.

Preventing ‘zombies’ is possible if your employees keep all their security software up to date and run virus scans daily. Additionally, train your employees to spot computer slowdowns or crashes as these may be signs that their computers have been infected.

Concerned about your company’s Internet security?