Tulips, (Viagra and hard core sex) from Amsterspam

Forget the Day of Dead, Zombies are real.

They infect our offices, our homes and they are relentless. Unstoppable.

From crown princes of Nigeria offering untold riches to penis enlargement and Viagra, the Zombies peddle their vile filth to our inboxes on a daily basis.

A shotgun, holy water and even filtering software are powerless against “two hot chicks making out,” and even when you cut off two of their heads, like the Dutch authorities did to the Grum botnet recently by closing down two back up command and control servers; the primary servers are still alive and ready to herd more zombies into their bot dominion.

Despite contacting the ISPs in Russia and Panama, the primary C&CS are still kicking and could try to regain control of their enslaved machines around the globe to help you buy “Meds from Canada” and porn from Potsdam.

Overall it is believed that this botnet alone provides up to a third of the world’s spam and many Zombie computers are unaware of their true masters. Security experts also believe that as well as being reactivated by networks like Grum, these Zombies o are liable to other botnet infections.

And despite pressure from companies such as Microsoft and local law enforcement agencies, these networks appear to be impervious to regulation.

So if security companies and law enforcement organisations around the world are powerless to stop botnets like Grum from operating in areas outside their jurisdiction, what can the channel do to ensure their customers are safe from infection and without the need for holy water or a well placed cricket bat?

Well, part of it is identifying insecure code and understanding vulnerabilities before its too late. This is why I always try to attend] the Black Hat conference in Vegas, that kicks off next week and was also held in my home town Amsterdam in March this year.

It’s all about advanced threat protection. Knowing what to look for and where the potential holes in your organisation are.

It’s pretty hardcore on the technical front which is why I usually take my CTO with me so I can interpret what they are saying and turn it into sales pitches that can drain the blood from the faces of my customers making them look a little like Zombies themselves.