Yes, that’s right your computer may be committing a crime right now as you are reading this. Bob Sullivan, a MSNBC Technology Reporter specializing on security, writing in the Red Tape Chronicles blog he does for MSNBC, reports that almost 150 million computers worldwide have been unknowingly hijacked to act as bots in botnet networks.
These networks, a collection of multiple computers, participate in the highly lucrative criminal actions such as forwarding spam, buying stock in a pump and dump scheme, stealing identities and/or being used for extortion against common commerce sites or just attacking the internet itself.
It’s unclear to the extent of your legal liability for the crimes your computer is committing, but no one wants to be one of the early test cases. In many of these issues, you become the first victim and being a victim can cost you significantly in money, time and damage to you or your business’s reputation.
Criminal individuals and organizations are making millions (in some cases billions) by sending out viruses, trojans, worms and phishing schemes to get illicit software on your system in order to add yet another computer (bot) to their botnet. They are far more successful than many realize because people aren’t as protected as they should be or aware of what’s happening with their computers.
Despite the warnings, still far too many people don’t run and maintain security software on their systems. They don’t apply the patches offered by Microsoft and other companies in a timely organized matter. They don’t apply the same levels of common sense regarding security and actions while on their computer as they would do out and about town and as a result, their computer becomes a new soldier in a bot army to send spam, capture personal information and passwords and send them to the bot creators to attack other sites and be a tool used to spread the problems to others.
Our expectation is that our computers need to work like our cars or our televisions. We turn them on and they work. They do what we want, how we want it to be done, when we want it. Unfortunately, computers are not as simple technologically as our televisions or cars. They need protective software and preventative maintenance in order to operate efficiently. Included in this are educated and knowledgeable people who can see these scams and tricks and not fall for them.
This can be hard and daunting. But you aren’t alone in trying to prevent these problems because there are experts that can train and equip you to be an effective soldier fighting these bot armies.
To enlist in this fight and work towards making your system as dependable and reliable as your car, call RJM Technology at 661-254-2017 to set an appointment today.