Employee education might be the best tool for fighting invasion of computer networks. While malware has dominated the protection conversation in the past year, the growing strength of botnets — systems of thousands or even millions of personal computers networked together and controlled for cybercrime — has even the most experienced in the Web shield industry concerned.

An estimated 70 percent to 90 percent of the world’s spam is now due to botnets, and an estimated 11 percent of computers connected to the Web contain botnet programs.

More abundant than ever, botnets are becoming sophisticated at quickly scanning a computer for urgent financial and corporate details. They often fly under the radar, considering they rarely affect the performance of the computers they infect, and since they create a large network of computers, they can segregate roles-with some computers acting as “communicators” and others as “doers.”

While a botnet is usually complex, the best solution may

be to educate users on best practices, combined with a defense-in-depth strategy. The battle against botnets may come down to ensuring that Bob in marketing knows not to visit on an enticing e-mail link, while making certain that well-established defense solutions such as intrusion-prevention solutions and firewalls are used correctly.

Employees need to be made fully aware of the possible consequences of clicking on a link regardless of how valid it appears. Hackers have the means of finding and using personal and localized knowledge to convince the recipient that an mail was addressed to him.

Malware can even spread unintentionally through e-mails coming from friends and colleagues. Therefore, users should not only know whether to trust the person sending the e-mail, they should plus have undoubtful knowledge that the person had a clear intent to include an attachment or link. The same rules apply for the use of…

Orginal post by Top Tech News