Types of Zombies

Different types of zombies present with different malicious intents:

1. Botnet Zombies: These are the compromised devices or computers that are controlled by Central Command and Control(C&C) servers by infecting computers with malware. These devices form a network called botnets. These botnets allow the criminal to coordinate for various cybercrime such as Distributing spam or DDOS.
2. Fileless Zombies: The problem with traditional malware is that they leave traces on the affected systems. Fileless Zombie operates in memory and it almost leaves no trail on the hard drive. These zombies are mostly undetectable from the traditional antivirus software making them hard to identify and mitigate.
3. IoT Zombies: Many IOT devices such as smart homes medical devices or industrial devices can be compromised and converted into zombies. These infected devices are a way to launch a big attack or can be the entry point into a big network
4. Ransomware Zombies: Some malware encrypts the victim’s file, blocks those files in the victim’s computer itself, and demands money to decrypt those files. This type of attack is said to be a ransomware attack. These attacks can become a zombie controlled by a ransomware controller.
5. Social Engineering Zombies: These zombies are not devices or computers they refer to individuals who manipulate others to give sensitive information by using social engineering tactics. Attackers use techniques such as fake websites, phone calls, or phishing emails to manipulate people into providing sensitive information or making them install malware by themselves.

In terms of Cyber Security the term “Zombie” denotes a computer or electronic device compromised by malware or malicious software. Whenever a computer gets affected by malicious software then that computer can be controlled by the attacker sitting at some different location and the owner won’t know about this. These infected computers are termed to be ‘zombies’.