Has Your PC Become a Spammer's Botnet Zombie?

I subscribe to the (free) email newsletter for WindowsSecrets.Com. One of their current articles is: "Has Your PC Become a Spammer's Botnet Zombie?"

I believe my home computer is infected with malware (along with spyware), and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out my poor computer is a botnet zombie. (sigh)

I need to get my new computer tech over to check it out. He did some work on my sister Sue's machine, and really did speed it up. I was SHOCKED the last time I did something on her machine, actually! She's always downloading things to her machine (or someone else does it), so there's nothing but problems. (I can't tell you how many times hours I've spent removing or trying to remove bad things from her computer. Seriously.)

I could probably remove some things myself, of course, but why bother? My experience has been that I'll miss things, while a tech will get it all. So I may as well let him do it. It's a better use of my time not to mess with it... The above article has lots of suggestions on what to do, for those intereted, though, if you prefer not to rely on a tech to do it.

All I know is it's ominous to see the flashing light of my hard drive when I'm not even on the computer. I've always felt it was a clear indication that something BAD is going on.

I have to admit that I tend to blame Microsoft for some of it. (smile) I don't think I need to go into those details, having discussed this more than once in the past. (Don't get me started about Windows Genuine Advantage...)