ACMA Champions Australian Zombie-Hunting Program

The Australian Communications & Media Authority, together with five leading internet service providers, has launched a trial initiative to combat the use by hackers of infected computers to send spam, collect personal information and commit other online crimes.

The program, called the Australian Internet Security Initiative, was launched on 7 November 2005 by the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan.

A zombie computer is a machine which has been infected by a computer virus or another form of controlled intrusion, such as hacking. An infected computer may then be remotely controlled by a third party without the computer owner knowing, and may be used to commit online crimes such as sending spam and hosting offensive material.