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When security officials decide to "go after" computer malware, most conduct their actions from a defensive standpoint. For most of us, finding a way to rid a computer of the malware suffices -- but for one computer researcher, however, the change ... from a defensive to an offensive mentality is what ended the two year chase of a sinister botnet once and for all. For two years, Atif Mushtaq had been keeping the notorious Mega-D bot malware from infecting computer networks. As of this past November, Mega-D had forced more than 250,000 PCs to do its bidding via botnet control. That's when Mushtaq ... (view more)

Botnet is a jargon term for a collection of software robots, or "bots," that run autonomously and automatically. The term is often associated with malicious software but it can also refer to the network of computers using distributed computing ... software. Zombie Computers and Botnets While the term "botnet" can be used to refer to any group of bots, the word is generally used to refer to a collection of compromised computers (called Zombie computers) running software, usually installed via worms, Trojan horses, or backdoors, under a common command-and-control infrastructure. How it ... (view more)