The terminals have been infected by a computer virus, turning them into "zombies"--slaves to the commands of a malicious and unseen controller. Connect them all up, and the result is a powerful network of zombie PCs that security experts call a "botnet."

The programming crooks--often teenage bedroom hackers--are hiring out these networks to anyone who wants to commit Internet mischief.

"Small groups of young people creating a resource out of a 10,000- to 30,000-strong computer network are renting them out to anybody who has the money," a source in Scotland Yard's computer crime unit told Reuters.

At ZDNet.

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