… R.A.T. & Zombie

COMPUTER

VIRUS

INFORMATION

R.A.T. … a program designed to provide access to, and control over, a network- attached computer from a remote computer or location, in effect providing a backdoor. Interestingly, RATs are often described, by their creators, as "Remote Administration Tools" in an attempt to present them as legitimate utility software. The distinction between valid remote tools and RATs generally lies in the provisions for RATs to be installed without the direct knowledge of the user or operator of the computer to be controlled, and additional functions to announce the installation of the RAT, and the address of the computer being controlled, to public venues such as Usenet newsgroups and IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

ZOMBIE … Zombie is a specialized type of backdoor or remote access program designed as the agent, or client (middle layer) component of a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) network. Once a zombie is installed on a computer, it identifies itself to a master computer, and then waits for instructions from the master computer. Upon receipt of instructions from the master computer, a number of zombie machines will send attack packets to a target computer. Zombie may refer to the control program run to control one of the middle layer computers, or it may refer to a computer so controlled.