The Security Mentor

What does all that talk from me about "spyware", "remote control", etc. actually mean? Does it affect real people? What does it really do? How bad is it?

The mainstream media prove they still have a place with this Washington Post article about someone who breaks into computers and installs spyware to build a "botnet". It's vivid, and as far as I can tell it's accurate and thorough.

If you read to the end, there's mention of what one piece of nasty software that's out on the street can do:

the bot program also contained more than 30 other features, including the ability to capture all of the victim's Web traffic and keystrokes, as well as a program that looks for PayPal user names and passwords. Other programs installed by the bot allowed the attackers to peek through a user's webcam.