Bot-Nets on the Rise

Symantec Security Response just released a report, according to the BBC website, that the number of bot-nets has increased almost 30% in the last year, bringing the number of zombified PC's up to around 6 million.According to Alfred Huger, the VP of Semantic, the amount of "PC hijackers" is increasing as other countries expand their web base (although the article makes a point of noting that "more than a third of all computer attacks in the second half of 2006 originated from PCs in the United States"); and as well the "hijackers" are becoming more sophisitacted, even policing one-another, by "launching denial-of-service attacks on rivals' servers and posting pictures online of competitors' faces...It's ruthless, highly organised and highly evolved."

Not knowing too much about Symantec, I went to the website, and was surprised that this "threat report" a) came from what appears to be, not a neutral third party, but a company that sells security software; b) that a report making the "front page" of the BBC website wasn't even listed in the "news" section (or any other I could see) on Symantec's site. Instead, the "recent news" section has links with title's like, "Norton 360" provides all-around protection."

Does it, actually? Is buying Symantec's spyware and adware and Norton anti-virus stuff actually the cure-all? I know we've talked about this stuff, but it's still a little unclear to me...