[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As for myself, I cannot really picture
> 'five hundred thousand zombie computers scattered across three
> continents'. If so, under whose coordination? A gang of crackers all
> working in concert to cheat some advertiser's competitor, by running
> up his advertising bill? Seems sort of improbable to me. PAT]
There are easily that many zombies available out there. Doesn't need any real coordination at all to use them -- there are automated scripts available to find and use them.
I figure probably 1 in 50 home users' PC is "zombified" without them knowing it.
Anyway, my point is one bright 13 yr old could do the whole operation alone.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess not everyone takes the trouble, as I do, to automatically run Grisoft AVG in the early morning hours on my machines, and Ad Aware and Spybot Smash and Destroy once per week or so. PAT]