When most people hear zombies, they think of brain-eating monsters from horror movies. But in cyber security, a zombie is something quite different. And What is a Zombie in Cyber Security?
It’s a very important term that you need to know if you want to stay safe online. Keep reading to find out!
What is a Zombie in Cyber Security?
A zombie computer is linked to a network but has been infiltrated by a hacker, a virus, or a Trojan. It is capable of being utilized remotely for nefarious purposes.
Most zombie computer owners are unaware that their machine is being utilized, hence the parallel to the living dead. They utilize DDoS assaults with botnets, like zombie attacks in horror films.
What do they serve?
Zombies are widely employed in denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults, which involve flooding websites with many machines at the same time. Because so many people are sending requests to the server hosting the Web page simultaneously, the site breaks, blocking access to legitimate users.
This sort of saturation is known as a degradation-of-service assault. Also, it employs ‘pulsing zombies’: degradation of service by repeatedly saturating websites. It does it at a low intensity to slow down, rather than block, the targeted website. Such assaults are difficult to detect since the poor service may linger undiscovered for months or even years or is mistakenly attributed to other issues.
Zombies have also been employed to distribute spam. In 2005, it was believed that zombie computers sent between 50 and 80 percent of all spam in circulation. This strategy is beneficial to criminals since it allows them to evade detection while also lowering bandwidth expenses.
This form of spam uses to propagate Trojans, as this type of malware does not self-replicate. It instead relies on email distribution to increase, unlike worms that spread through other ways. Zombies are also employed for fraud against sites with pay-per-click contextual adverts, artificially raising the number of clicks.
Major assaults
In 2000, numerous high-profile websites (including Yahoo and eBay) were brought down by a distributed denial-of-service assault carried out by a Canadian teenager going by the alias MafiaBoy. Later, additional large-scale denial- and degradation-of-service attacks. It includes targeting antispam systems like SPEWS in 2003 or Blue Frog in 2006, followed the same approach.
More recently, in 2010, the Telematic Crime Brigade of the Spanish Civil Guard shut down a criminal network named Mariposa. It had over 13 million computers, and the offenders did apprehend. They have information from 800,000 people in 180 countries.
How to Safeguard Yourself
The strongest security tools for avoiding these attacks are common sense and care. Visit suspect websites, do not download strange files, and do not click on anything in suspicious communications.
It is also recommended to avoid unprofessional websites or those of unknown firms, to only download stuff from reputable sources, and to install security measures on your computers, such as antivirus, antispam, or firewall software.