The "Indestructible Botnet" that has made the news in the last few days is not the immortal zombie it is sometimes portrayed as. Technical experts say that while it uses a few new variations on old tricks, it can be detected and removed without much difficulty.
The virus, known as TDL-4, lives on a computer where it uses few computer resources to avoid detection--a computer infected with TDL-4 will run almost as fast as a non-infected computer. The computer owner isn't alerted to the possible presence of a virus because the computer seems to run fine.
TDL-4 also regularly checks the computer for the presence of other computer viruses and if it finds them, it removes them. This not only prevents competition from other viruses, but it also keeps the computer running well. If the computer slows down because it has another virus, the computer owner might very well find TDL-4 in the process of removing the other virus.
But this scarcely means that TDL-4 is "indestructible." According to Sophos, a leading computer security software developer, TDL-4 infections can be avoided by keeping software up-to-date and by using a regularly-updated virus program. Even if you do manage to get infected, most anti-virus programs can remove the TDL-4 virus without requiring a reinstallation of Windows.
