Computers get sick?

Leveraging off last weeks discussion around hacktivism and hackers comes one of this week’s topics about botnets, and it’s a little scary. A botnet is essentially a network of computers which have been intentionally infected with malware by hackers or cybercriminals, the botnets then perform automated tasks on the internet without the permission or knowledge of the device owner (getsafeonline).

Ways your computer can be infected include opening email links containing a Trojan horse program, visiting a site which is already infected with malware, or even peer to peer spreading, this may be done via a network or infected storage devices.

And the risks can include your computer being infected with spyware to access your data, your computer could be used to infect other devices, or even spam emails.

Interesting to me the similarities between a human virus and a computer virus, the carrier has the ability to infect others, often without even knowing.