'Botnet' risk - measures to take?

[MasterBlaster76]

What do you guys make of this:

At least 4.5million PCs hit by 'indestructible' TDL-4 Botnet | Metro.co.uk

Is it likely to catch this from certain sites - you know the ones I mean - is it safe to surf at all right now, as long as you keep to trusted sites?

How do you know if you've become infected, and does it mean your PC is out of your control? What if you 'pull the plug out' - i.e. disconnect the internet?

 

[MattW]

With how many threads of PC problems you've managed, I'd unplug the power and run away.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Ha-ha; very funny.

If you'd known how many other problems I've had that I've sorted out myself.

I just don't like the sound of my PC becoming some kind of 'slave', that's all.

 

[MattW]

Seriously, just keep a firewall and decent virus scanner and be sensible with the sites you visit. If you spend all your time downloading cracks and warez, you're going to get some crap installed on your system. Likewise, pay attention when the cancel/allow screen appears and don't just auto click on yes.

In terms of detecting it, look at your bandwidth logs from your ISP, if you notice really high uploads one day and you weren't doing something that would do that, it's probably the only real thing I can think of - it will never be obvious to your everyday usage.

That said, the chances are low if you're using a system that's fully updated, the systems that are on the internet running an unpatched XP and using IE6 are the easy targets for botnets, not frequent users.

 

[Chewie]

I agree with Matt, basically the best security is just to make sure you don't visit dodgy sites.