WEBVTT - How Zombie Computers Work

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready, Are you get in touch with technology? With

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<v Speaker 1>tech stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Hey everyone,

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<v Speaker 1>and welcome to the podcast. My name is Jonathan Strickland.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm the staff writer here at how Stuff Works. And

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<v Speaker 1>with me is editor extraordinaire Chris Palette. And today we

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<v Speaker 1>thought we'd talked to you a little bit about a

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<v Speaker 1>scary thing on the web, the zombie computer. Yeah, so

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<v Speaker 1>if your screen starts displaying that over and over again,

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<v Speaker 1>you know you've got a problem. Well, first of all,

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<v Speaker 1>we should probably tell you zombie computers is kind of

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<v Speaker 1>a it's it's a term that the media sort of

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<v Speaker 1>invented to describe something that the tech world usually refers

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<v Speaker 1>to as a bot uh, And a collection of these

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<v Speaker 1>is called a button net. Now, in the media terms,

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<v Speaker 1>it's an army of zombie computers, which you can imagine

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<v Speaker 1>sounds a little more interesting than a bot net. But

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<v Speaker 1>saying yes, yes, it definitely definitely gets the the issues

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<v Speaker 1>off the news stand. But so what is a button

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<v Speaker 1>net or or a zombie computer? Uh, it's technically it's

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<v Speaker 1>it's it could be any computer at all. But it's

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<v Speaker 1>a computer that a hacker has gained access to remotely

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<v Speaker 1>and can control remotely. Now ideally for the hacker, uh,

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<v Speaker 1>he or she can do this without the computer's owner

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<v Speaker 1>being aware of what's going on at all. So your

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<v Speaker 1>computer could be a zombie computer, it could be a

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<v Speaker 1>butt and you might not even be aware of it. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>Actually that's ideal for the hacker because, uh, if you

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<v Speaker 1>have a machine that they are taking advantage of, if

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<v Speaker 1>you can detect the fact that it's being used as

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<v Speaker 1>a zombie computer, then you're going to do something to

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<v Speaker 1>get rid of that. So they wanted as undetectable and

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<v Speaker 1>as quiet as possible so that they can continue to

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<v Speaker 1>use your your machine now. Um. One of the more

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<v Speaker 1>recent and uh in my opinion, scarier UH tactics that

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<v Speaker 1>are actually that's a trojan horse program called the storm

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<v Speaker 1>worm UM and it's sort of made headlines, but it

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<v Speaker 1>sort of hasn't um because they're they're they're so under

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<v Speaker 1>the radar, uh with all their their work that they

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<v Speaker 1>really haven't Whoever is behind the stormworm has escaped a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of public notice. It's not like a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>the famous viruses of the past, right, and and just

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<v Speaker 1>so you know, that's really the way hackers usually get

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<v Speaker 1>get access to your computer. It's it's by tricking you

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<v Speaker 1>into downloading and executing a file that is a form

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<v Speaker 1>of computer virus UH, usually a trojan horse program UM.

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<v Speaker 1>So you download the program, you execute it, and it

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<v Speaker 1>executes some some code on your computer that allows the

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<v Speaker 1>hacker to get back door access to your your operating system.

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<v Speaker 1>The real problem with this, of course, is that if

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<v Speaker 1>they do it, well, you don't know, and if you're

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<v Speaker 1>not really if you're not really aware this sort of thing,

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<v Speaker 1>you might just think you've got a bad file. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>you tried to execute something someone said, oh, there's a

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<v Speaker 1>great slideshow of pictures on here, and you click on it,

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<v Speaker 1>nothing happens. You might just think, oh, you know, the

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<v Speaker 1>code gout got a compromise in some way, Well forget

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<v Speaker 1>it. It It probably wasn't worth looking at, and you go

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<v Speaker 1>on your married little way. Meanwhile, your computer is doing

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<v Speaker 1>all sorts of nasty things, and this can include everything

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<v Speaker 1>from sending out spam mail to two dozens of people

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<v Speaker 1>to UH to something that is called a distributed denial

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<v Speaker 1>of service attack. Now that that's something that goes across

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<v Speaker 1>an entire network of zombie computers or a bot net,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's it's an interesting tactic. It's it's a sabotage tactic.

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<v Speaker 1>It's when a hacker decides to try and take down

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<v Speaker 1>a website or a web server of a particular individual, corporation,

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<v Speaker 1>or organization UM by overloading it. So you tell your

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<v Speaker 1>army of computers that you've hacked into to all say

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<v Speaker 1>and messages to this one particular web server, and then

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<v Speaker 1>next thing you know, that web server gets overloaded with

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<v Speaker 1>requests and crashes. And there have been some really big,

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<v Speaker 1>big story uh stories of this, like CNN has been

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<v Speaker 1>hit by this, Microsoft has been hit by this. Yahoo.

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<v Speaker 1>Just because you are a big presence on the web,

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<v Speaker 1>and you might even have great Internet security, it doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>mean you're immune to this kind of attack. You know.

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<v Speaker 1>The funny thing is that in order to take advantage

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<v Speaker 1>of a computer system, a hacker has to exploit a

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<v Speaker 1>vulnerability UM And basically what that means is somewhere in

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<v Speaker 1>the code that operates your computer there is a hole

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<v Speaker 1>and they are taking advantage of it. But really the

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<v Speaker 1>biggest vulnerability with all of these zombie computer viruses that

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<v Speaker 1>the trojan horses. They require you to install that program,

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<v Speaker 1>so you are the biggest vulnerability. So as long as

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<v Speaker 1>you educate yourself and don't launch strange files, own open

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<v Speaker 1>emails from people you don't know, you have a much

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<v Speaker 1>better chance of keeping your computer from joining the ranks

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<v Speaker 1>of the zombies. Right. And should you actually get infected,

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<v Speaker 1>that's not so good. You may have to actually completely

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<v Speaker 1>reform at your entire computer, So announce of prevention guys. Anyway,

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<v Speaker 1>that's about all the time we have. If you want

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<v Speaker 1>to learn more, check out our article on how zombie

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<v Speaker 1>computers work at how stuff works dot com for more

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<v Speaker 1>on this and thousands of other topics. Does stop works

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<v Speaker 1>dot com? Let us know what you think. Send an

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<v Speaker 1>email to podcasts at how stuff works dot com. Brought

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<v Speaker 1>to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

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<v Speaker 1>are you