Six ways to protect yourself from botnets

Original article:Http://www.thatdamnpc.com/six-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-botnets/

You may ask: "What is a botnet ?" A botnet is a jargon term for a collection of software robots, or bots, which run autonomously and automatically. they run on groups of "zombie" computers controlled remotely by crackers. this can also refer to the network of computers using distributed computing software. while the term "botnet" can be used to refer to any group of bots, such as IRC bots, the word is generally used to refer to a collection of compromised computers (called Zombie computers) running programs, usually referred to as worms, Trojan horses, or backdoors, under a common command and control infrastructure. [source]

Scary, no? Here are some tips on how top protect yourself from botnets via PC World

1. Hire a web-filtering service.
Web-filtering services are one of the best ways to fight bots. These services scan for web sites exhibiting unusual behavior or known malicious activity and block those sites from users.

Websense, cyveillance and FaceTime communications are examples. all monitor the Internet in real time to find web sites engaged in suspicious activity, such as downloading JavaScript and refreshing screen scrapes and other tricks outside the boundaries of normal Web browsing. cyveillance and support intelligence also offer services that require y web-site operators and ISPs that malware has been discovered, so hacked servers can be fixed, they say.

2. Switch browsers
Another tactic to prevent bot infections is to standardize on a browser other than Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, the two most popular and hence the browsers for which most malware is written. the same tactic works for operating systems. macs statistically are safe from botnets, as is Desktop Linux, because most bot herders target Windows.

3. Disable scripts
A more extreme measure is to disable browsers from scripts altogether, though this cocould put a damper on productivity if employees use M, Web-based applications in their work.