The use of PC "zombies" to generate spam will increase as more small businesses and individuals gain Internet connections, says Netxactics CEO Brett Myroff.
Speaking to ITWeb yesterday at the launch of the new Sophos anti-virus and computer security software in Cape Town, Myroff said the risk of e-mail abuse would increase as more people connect to the Internet.
"The only real way to counter this is through education of the end-user."
According to Myroff, a "zombie" is a PC that has received either a virus or a Trojan program that causes it to be used as a spam generator without the user`s knowledge.
"Spam can be a problem for small and large businesses. It uses up bandwidth, which in this country is a scarce commodity, and this can make the Internet experience very frustrating."
Myroff says the security breaches seen at some of the online banking sites last year gave an indication of what could happen.
"It also forced the banks to put in the security that they should have in the first place," he says.
Netxactics, which recently opened its Cape Town office, distributes the Sophos range of computer security products. This has been expanded to products catering for the small business with a licence for five users.
Sophos uses a range of methodologies to identify, filter and discard spam. One of its representatives says the company has identified 5.6 billion ways that spammers try to get the word "Viagra" through firewalls and filters.
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