Earlier this week, Ars Technica did a story on a group of researchers in the computer science department at the University of California Santa Barbara. These researchers conducted a study on a botnet named Torpig after they successfully hijacked the botnet for ten days. What they discovered was not only mind boggling, but down right scary.

In case you didn't know, a botnet is essentially a network of computers on the internet that are all infected with the same virus (or malware). This 'network' periodically contacts special servers and delivers information or receives instructions from the 'bad guys'.

Torpig is an especially nasty botnet that over the years has been responsible for stealing more than a half-million online bank account details and was referred to by BBC News as "one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created".

The goal of the researchers at UCSB was to hijack the botnet so that they could see the same information that the bad guys could see in an effort to determine how big and how dangerous Torpig actually was. I will provide links to all the information and sources as well as their original report, but here is an overview of what they discovered in just 10 days of "owning" Torpig:

• Over 180,000 infected machines.
• Over 70GB of data collected.
• Gained access to 54,090 mailbox accounts.
• Captured 1,258,862 emails.
• Captured 11,966,532 pieces of form data (from forms filled out online, such as account logins, credit card numbers, addresses, etc).
• Captured 1,235,122 Windows passwords.
• Captured 8,310 login credentials to 410 financial institutions world wide.

Now keep in mind, this is just the data collected in 10 days. Torpig was originally discovered in February of 2006. And Torpig is only one botnet, albeit a particularly nasty one. There are other botnets out there. Some of them contribute to the massive amount of spam that you receive in your inboxes every day, and others, like Torpig, are out to steal your information.

What can you do?

There are many things you can do to protect yourself from malware and viruses like Torpig. First and foremost, make sure you have a up-to-date Virus program. There are thousands of new viruses popping up every month, and making sure you have a virus program that is up to date and functional is key in protecting yourself.

On top of that, here are some other things I recommend:

• Financial institutions are reluctant to send emails and for good reason. It is very easy to create an email that looks and feels like it is coming from your bank and then provide links that take you to websites that look and feel exactly like your banks website. If you receive an email from any bank or financial institution that asks you to click a link, beware. Don't click the link, just open your web browser and manually type in your banks address to login.
• Make note of your computers performance. If you hard drive seems to be spinning a lot or your internet connection seems slow, this could be an indication that your machine is doing something in the background that it isn't supposed to be.
• Run network and computer scans to monitor for suspicious activity. Most viruses are doing something over the internet and if your anti-virus program isn't catching them on your machine, a lot of network sniffers will.
• Change your passwords. I recommend changing your online and email passwords once a month, but even once every 3 months is better than nothing.
• Don't use the same passwords. I know it's easy to do and I've even been guilty of it myself from time to time, but it is a good ideas to use different passwords for different sites.
• Don't use easy passwords. It is important to not use obvious passwords and especially important to mix and match numbers and letters, even special characters (ie: #,$,%,&) if allowed to do so.

Never Assume

Nobody is safe, not even us Mac users. While Torpig is specific to Windows users, recent discoveries have made it known that perpetrators are starting to set their sights on Mac as well, especially since the Apple market share has been increasing over the last couple of years.

In addition, while anti-virus programs are extremely important to the health and safety of your computer, they are not perfect. Torpig in particular sends commands and files that installs malware in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of infected computers which makes it extremely difficult to detect and even more difficult to remove.

And of course, don't count on being notified by financial institutions, ISP's or law enforcement about possible infections. As stated in their report, "interacting with registrars, hosting facilities, victim institutions, and law enforcement is a rather complicated process."

Safety and Security First

In the end, the researches at UCSB concluded that "victims of botnets are users with poorly maintained machines that choose easily guessable passwords to protect access to sensitive sites. This is evidence that the malware problem is fundamentally a cultural problem."

What it comes down to is the best way to protect yourself is to not become a victim in the first place. Be safe, be smart and remember that your computer and your private information is only as safe as you make it.