Symantec Unleashes Zombie-Fighting SoftwareSymantec Unleashes Zombie-Fighting Software

Symantec Corp. released today its Norton AntiBot, which is designed to provide consumers with bot detection and removal.

Norton AntiBot is client-side software designed to monitor PC applications and processes, running along with conventional anti-virus products. Symantec released the beta version of the zombie-fighting software in early June.

The malware-fighting software doesn't depend on virus signatures and scan-based technologies, like anti-virus products generally do, Ed Kim, director of product management at Symantec, said in an earlier interview. Kim said that AntiBot is behaviorial-based technology, aimed at guarding against malware and Trojans that hackers use to infect computers and turn them into zombies to join their botnet armies. He also said it's designed to tackle systems that already have become part of a botnet and weed the malicious code out of infected computers.

"Consumers need to know that they may be directly implicated in the criminal activities being perpetrated by botnets -- if not by having their own identity or personal information stolen, then by being part of a network of zombie PCs carrying out large-scale criminal activities like massive spam distribution and phishing e-mail schemes," said Rowan Trollope, a Symantec senior VP, in a statement. "We're estimating millions upon millions of bot-infected PCs in existence today, with the vast majority of these users having no idea of what's going on behind the scenes of their own computer. Norton AntiBot is an important new tool for strengthening consumer security and stopping these insidious threats."

In Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report, which was released this past March, the company's researchers reported that during the last six months of 2006, there were more than 6 million active bots, about 30% more zombie computers than was found in the previous six-month period.

"Botnets are quickly becoming one of the most pervasive, dangerous, and aggravating classes of malware," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, in a statement. "These networks are increasingly managed by professional criminals using leading technology to steal consumer bandwidth and performance, and use it for tasks ranging from massive amounts of spam to outright identity theft."

Norton AntiBot is available from the Symantec online store for an estimated retail price of $29.99, which includes a one-year subscription to Symantec's protection updates.