FTC Looks for Service Providers to Control Zombies

Hundreds of thousands of computers throughout the world have been taken over by spammers to send junk e-mail to their victims. These systems have become known as zombies. Various forms of malicious software infects the systems via confused end users or security exploits.

This presents problems for other internet users. Not only do they get additional unwanted email, but their bandwidth can be used up by the increased traffic levels. Some estimates suggest that most spam on the internet is now sent by infected zombie systems. Networks with major zombie problems are often included on email block lists.

The FTC is now looking to get help with the problem. They will soon ask thousands of internet service providers to shutdown users access if there's evidence that their system has been infected.

Its commonly difficult for the user to determine that there system is compromised. Sometimes there are no external symptoms. Even experienced system administrators are often not alerted that something is amiss.

The systems are usually easy enough to detect on the receiving end. Most email contains information regarding which system sent the message. Once an administrator at the service provider receives multiple complaints, they can determine which user was using that IP address at the time, and shut their account down.

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