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The A to Z of broadband
Let's get connected with an alphabetic guide to all things broadband

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Wednesday 01 November 2006

Zombies

No, not the living dead come to eat your brains but PCs commandeered by remote attackers to spew out spam. The rise of broadband has made this problem worse as fat pipes have led to an increase in the number of PCs left connected to the internet all day.

The list from A to Z

Click on the links below to find out more...

A is for ADSL
B is for BT
C is for Cable & Wireless
D is for Dial-up
E is for Education
F is for Fibre
G is for Goonhilly
H is for HSDPA
I is for In-flight
J is for Janet
K is for Kingston
L is for Landlines
M is for Murdoch
N is for Next generation
O is for Ofcom
P is for Power lines
Q is for Quad-play
R is for Remote working
S is for Satellite phones
T is for Trains
U is for Unbundling
V is for VoIP
W is for WiMax
X is for Xbox
Y is for YouTube
Z is for Zombies

An army of zombies, aka a botnet, is made up of thousands of computers that have been clandestinely hijacked after being infected by malware.

Botnets are also used by cyber criminals to carry out distributed denial of service attacks.

Big is not necessarily beautiful in the botnet world - smaller zombie armies can help malicious attackers avoid detection.

Spammers are dusting off their botnet passports and targeting new countries and regions to increase the number of machines they can enlist.