You know those “have-a-penny/need-a-penny” jars you find at 7-Eleven and whatnot? Here’s a cool way to kill a few hours: go around your town collecting pennies. Then, with said pennies, buy a whole bunch of zombie PCs, then start your own botnet. You’ll be the coolest kid in the neighborhood.
What am I talking about? A California company, Finjan, has put together a report that lists the going rates for zombie PCs. You can buy 1,000 infected PCs for the paltry sum of $100—and cheaper deals aren’t hard to find.(You can buy 1,000 infected PCs in Asia for $5. That’s crazy.)
Why should you care? Well, to be honest, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t care too much. Zombie PCs, botnets—let someone else worry about that, right? Sure, that’s one way to look at it, but the fact is, all those garbage PCs running around out there just make surfing the Internet all the more dangerous.
It could be a cheap, gift to give someone, though. “Here, 1,000 zombie PCs. Happy birthday!”