What if our PC's a zombie?!

You may've heard of the new Digital Age kind of zombie. I hope so, because it could be your family PC. Actually, the odds aren't great that your computer has been turned into a dummy machine run by malicious hackers, but the probability is growing - especially in households with very connected kids (gamers, IM-ers, file-sharers, Web researchers, emailers, contest-enterers, etc.). So if your PC's acting strangely (unexplained shutdowns, error messages, etc.), it'd be good to have a family chat about what everybody's using the Internet for - what applications they're using, what's being downloaded, how Preferences are being configured, and so on. It'd also be good to have the anti-virus software (which I trust you've installed and kept up-to-date) scan the PC(s) for viruses. That's all a zombie is: a computer that has been infected by a PC-controlling virus. Virus writers' favorite goal these days is not to damage your computer, but rather to take control of it altogether - turn it into a zombie (see "One very illegal summer job" below for how groups of teen are allegedly capitalizing on controlling networks of these dummy PCs all over the world). When this happens, the quite reasonable question comes up: "If our PC's a zombie, what can we do about it?" For the answer, click here (to this week's SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter). We'd love to hear your family's stories about computer viruses - email me anytime via anne@netfamilynews.org or post a response here!