One indicator of the extent of the problem is the massive amount of spam pervading the Internet. While you may think spam is a different problem to security, they’re closely related. Here’s how…

Most spam is distributed through hundreds of millions of PCs owned by unsuspecting people just like you. Their computers have been “enslaved” by a rogue program — completely unknown to the owner/operators of the computer. This method of spam dissemination conceals the true spam originator from the eyes of any authorities.

The hundreds of millions of owners of those hundreds of millions of compromised PCs have no clue that they are accomplices in one of the great scourges of the modern era.

It’s no exaggeration to talk in terms of millions, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of computers. Nobody knows exactly how many Internet users there are worldwide, but certainly in excess of a billion (a thousand million) and probably closer to two billion.

But being an unwitting spammer is not the worst of it for the user of an infected PC. You see, bots can steal from a PC just as easily as they can use it for spamming.

The modern cyber-crim doesn’t break into a PC so he can wreak havoc with mindless destruction—deleting files, leaving disgusting messages, sending your browser to pornographic websites, inundating you with “adult” pop-ups, etc.

Sure, all of that happens too, and vindictive “script-kiddies” are as active as ever, but today’s real cyber-crim is much smarter than that. His goal is to make money.

Data that is stolen without the owner’s knowledge is much more valuable, because it can be monetized before the rightful owner can take preventative measures, such as changing passwords or canceling credit cards.

Another indicator of malicious intrusion is degraded performance.

There can be several reasons why a computer appears to be running much slower than it used to, or is prone to lockups and crashes. Very high on the list of reasons is that it has been compromised in some way.

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