zombie (redirected from Zombification)

zombie

A computer that has been covertly taken over in order to perform some nefarious task. It is estimated that millions of PCs around the world have been compromised and, under the control of a third party, routinely transmit messages unbeknownst to the user.

Zombies are widely used to relay spam so that messages come from thousands of different IP addresses, avoiding detection and expanding volume at the same time.

Denial of Service
Before spam became such a popular pastime, zombies were used to transmit phony messages to a server in order to slow down service and disrupt the network. A "pulsing zombie" is one that sends bogus messages in periodic bursts rather than continuously, once again, to avoid detection. See spam, denial of service attack and botnet.

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zombie, zombi

1. a supernatural spirit that reanimates a dead body

2. a corpse brought to life in this manner

3. the snake god of voodoo cults in the West Indies, esp Haiti, and in scattered areas of the southern US

4. the python god revered in parts of West Africa

5. a piece of computer code that instructs an infected computer to send a virus on to other computer systems

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1.	(operating system)	zombie - zombie process.
2.	(chat)	zombie - A ghost.