125/05
7 November 2005

Government Acts to Zap Zombies

An Australian Internet security initiative, launched today by the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, will target ‘zombie’ computers in a bid to protect Australians from hackers.

“Zombies are computers compromised by hackers and then controlled remotely to send spam, collect personal information and launch denial of service attacks,” Senator Coonan said.

“The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and five Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have joined forces to pilot a system to identify zombie computers, notify the unfortunate owners and help them take appropriate action quickly.

Many ISPs have expressed an interest in participating in the project. Five ISPs have agreed to participate in a pilot project: Telstra Bigpond, Optus Internet, Westnet, Pacific Internet and West Australian Network.

The participating ISPs will receive alerts from ACMA with data on the addresses of zombies operating on their networks. ISPs will use this information to advise customers that their computers have been compromised and provide information on how they can better secure their computer.

“Computer owners are often unaware that their computers are being controlled by others and used for malicious purposes,” the Minister said.

More concerning is that these Zombies can then be ‘collected’ in their thousands by hackers to form ‘botnets’ – which can then be used to launch large scale attacks or release huge amounts of spam.

“The risks from zombie computers and botnets was highlighted by the arrest in the US last week of a hacker who had assembled a network of up to 400,000 computers which was then on sold to hackers and spammers,” Senator Coonan said.

“Computer owners who do not install and keep up-to-date anti-virus software and firewalls run the risk of personal loss or their computers being used unwittingly by hackers for attacks on other people and organisations.”

The Government has a number of publications that provide advice on internet security, Internet Security Essential for Small Business www.dcita.gov.au/ie/e-security, and advice about securing their computers from spyware Taking Care of Spyware www.dcita.gov.au/ie/spyware