Even if you already have a firewall and virus protection, you should still run ZombieSpy. First, it will do no harm whatsoever, but more importantly it will alert you to a problem immediately. In many cases, this can be a full day or longer before your virus software gets an update and can disinfect your computer.

Probably not. If you are using a hardware based firewall such as a common broadband type firewall or cable router, your firewall thinks it is ok for your PC to be sending out email. Your firewall protects you from attacks, but it will usually not prevent you from "attacking" others. This is basically what a zombie program does.

This is better at detecting unauthorized programs accessing the internet than hardware firewalls. However they can be cumbersome to use especially if you have kids using the computer. They tend to want to download the latest, greatest or every new thing and a software firewall frequently gets turned off or rules set very loosely for locally installed applications.

Your computer can be infected in a number of ways. The most common way when you download a program from a questionable source. If you have kids that use your computer, this danger is increased probably 100 fold. By now almost everyone has heard of "Spyware" and there are dozens of programs available to deal with this problem. Spyware however is part of a larger category called "Malware". (Click here to see the Wikipedia definition) Malware is defined as anything that can damage your computer or use it for nefarious purposes.

Money. Think about it. A spammer can buy expensive servers and high speed commercial internet connections and spend thousands of dollars only to get shut down when they are discovered. Or they can "rent" your computer and thousands of others to send their spam for them. They might be sending out spam about Viagra, home mortgages, or even child pornography directly from your computer.

That is how botnets (Click here to see the Wikipedia definition) work. Once their malware is installed on your computer, it may sit there harmlessly for days or weeks and do nothing. Well, almost nothing. It will periodically check with its creator for instructions. The malware creator and botnet "owner" may offer the botnet for rent. For a few hundred dollars, a spammer can rent the botnet for a day and send out millions of spam messages. They botnet owner simply posts instructions and when infected computers check in, they get their marching orders and get busy.

No, not by itself. For that you will still need a good anti-virus software product and a spyware removal program. What ZombieSpy will do is alert you that something is going on. In many cases it may take your anti-virus or spyware detection programs several days to become aware of the infection. In some cases, they may never be aware of a problem at all. ZombieSpy will display an alert anytime your computer tries to connect to an email server to send mail. So if this occurs, you will know immediately. If you find suspicious activity going on, you can let us know and we will research it and tell you how to remove the culprit.