As a Kansas City computer repair specialist, I have the privilege of seeing a vast array of computers, configurations and setups across the city. It continues to be surprising how many computer owners still leave there computers unprotected. The world is changing fast and the foreign computer attackers are growing at a swift pace. Some of the foreign attackers make the average domestic attacker seem relatively harmless. I say relatively because the domestic malware creator can still produce threats that will render your computer unusable.

The most recent threat types such as the “bot” bring a whole new paradigm of intrusion to the computer landscape. “A bot typically runs hidden and complies with the RFC 1459 (IRC) standard. Generally, the perpetrator of the botnet has compromised a series of systems using various tools (exploits, buffer overflows, as well as others; see also RPC). Newer bots can automatically scan their environment and propagate themselves using vulnerabilities and weak passwords. Generally, the more vulnerabilities a bot can scan and propagate through, the more valuable it becomes to a botnet controller community. The process of stealing computing resources as a result of a system being joined to a “botnet” is sometimes referred to as ‘scrumping.’” - Wikipedia.

Overlooking the technical terminology above, you can see that bots are very sophisticated in their approach and very dangerous to the well-being to all who are involved.

In the malware removal category, software like pc tools spyware doctor is a solid tool to help combat some of these bots such as the VBBot. Spyware Doctor can even remove Conficker which is a worm that is really part of a botnet that is extremely hard to counter.

If you wish to have specific botnet protection, take a look at Norton Antibot as a viable solution.

Norton Antibot is software licensed from Sana Security(update: purchased by AVG in Jan 2009- Norton Antibot discontinued) that detects bots, spyware, adware and other malware based on their behavior. It does not need a signature database to operate because it detects suspect behaviors.

The Norton 360 product now implements SONAR technology which is used to combat botnets. Therefore, look at Norton 360 as the alternative to Norton Antibot.