http://community.norton.com/t5/Ask-Marian/Politics-and-Botnets-Find-Another-Way-to-Express-Your-Opinion/ba-p/57067 It's not uncommon for hackers to respond to political events by defacing websites or staging Denial-of-Service attacks on a site as form of political protest. The current wave of violence in the Middle East has given rise to a new form of political involvement: harnessing the combined computing power of like minded people via botnets.<br /><br />A botnet is a networked group of computers under the control of a botherder. Usually people's computers become infected without their knowledge and the botherder can abuse the victim's&nbsp;computer's bandwidth to send spam emails, to steal private information and similar cybercriminal purposes. Typically the purpose is to achieve financial gain for the botherder, and not political in nature.<br /><br />It's being <a href="http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/israel-dns-hack.html" target="_blank">reported</a> that a group of pro-Israeli computer programmers have written a piece of code that enables those who install it to share their computer's bandwidth in a joint effort to disrupt or take offline pro-Palestinian websites. I'm not interested in engaging in a political discussion in this blog, that's not my purpose here. However, I must point out that purposely downloading a botnet and allowing an unknown group of people to hold permanent control of your computer is a foolish thing to do. Therefore, I suggest if someone encourages you to join a political effort of this nature you politely decline and find another way to express your opinion. Attend a rally, donate some money, or call your Congressman might be more appropriate. Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:13:55 GMT marianmerritt 2009-01-12T23:13:55Z http://community.norton.com/t5/Ask-Marian/Politics-and-Botnets-Find-Another-Way-to-Express-Your-Opinion/ba-p/57067 It's not uncommon for hackers to respond to political events by defacing websites or staging Denial-of-Service attacks on a site as form of political protest. The current wave of violence in the Middle East has given rise to a new form of political involvement: harnessing the combined computing power of like minded people via botnets. Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:13:55 GMT http://community.norton.com/t5/Ask-Marian/Politics-and-Botnets-Find-Another-Way-to-Express-Your-Opinion/ba-p/57067 marianmerritt 2009-01-12T23:13:55Z