LAS VEGAS - Botnets are big, bad and everywhere.
"Just out of nowhere, our computers crashed," said Hero Bail Bounds owner Josh Caruso. "It literally just shut it down and fired back up with all these error reports."
A bot hijacked Caruso's network of computers and digitally rewired them to join a botnet. The infection was a big inconvenience and cost him money.
"The name of the game in my business is Hero Bail Bonds is known as the fastest bail bonds company," he said. "We're gonna' get you out the quickest. So, I need every one of our systems up and running properly."
Botnets are networks of infected computers that act in unison like a huge server, waiting for a command to steal passwords, shut down commercial websites or blast annoying spam to thousands of in-boxes.
Fred Leonard owns LVIT and regularly fixes infected computers. He says spammers pay big money for these attacks, hoping to reel in business.
"The Canadians use it to send out their pharmaceutical spam. I'm sure everyone's got a spam for Viagra. Well, they stick it in the bots, and they send out the command," he said. "If spam comes from one location, they'll shut it down. That's why the spam blockers and everything else that's out there, they look at it."
Malware is also on the rise. It fools a user into thinking something is wrong with his or her computer. Malware convinces users to buy protection that doesn't really work, leaving users like Caruso vulnerable to cyber attack.
"I couldn't do anything, absolutely nothing on that front computer," he said. "It was completely done."
Leonard says the number of calls for computers infected with bots and malware has tripled in recent months. Usually, you can tell your computer is infected if it's running slower or just shuts down.
