Right now your computer could be involved in criminal activity.

Crooks all over the world have discovered how to use our own computers to do their dirty work.

Many computer experts say it's the greatest criminal threat that most people have never heard of.

There's a chance your own computer might already be what's called a zombie or bot. It’s a tool being used to fund organized crime.

If you click on the wrong e-mail or website, your computer will never be the same.

“Organized crime has found a way to turn our little home appliance against us," said Craig Schiller a computer security expert at Portland State University.

"Bot nets" used to attack personal PCs

Schiller is teaching law enforcement officials how to fight a nasty new enemy called a bot net.

Bot nets are created by injecting malicious code into various websites and spam e-mails. When a computer user gets infected they are instantly under the control of someone called a bot herder.

A bot herder is a mysterious hacker who can control up to a million and a half infected computers and use them to launch attacks all at once.

Bot herders are paid big money by other crooks that use the network of robots to launch attacks.

In effect, they use your computer to do terrible things.

“They've got 1.5 million computers that they can go in and place a trojan or malicious code, so the next time that person goes to their bank accounts, they piggy back on them and steal money out of those bank accounts,” said Schiller.

Your PC could be used in crimes

If your computer becomes part of a bot net, it may actually look like you are the criminal!

“All you have to specify is who you want to attack and for how long and all your thousands or tens of thousands of machines will begin attacking at once,” said Eric Chien, a botnet expert with Symantec, an anti-virus software company.

Professional hackers are fighting new forms of bot nets nearly every day at Symantec.

From the companies control center outside our nations capital bot net activity is tracked across the globe country by country.

Most of the infected computers are in the U.S. and China, but the crooks controlling them tend to be in Eastern Europe.

“When the wall went down there were a lot of unemployed highly trained highly skilled computer people so they were the ones that were writing the real sophisticated viruses,” said George Heuston, a former fbi agent who now works for the Hillsboro Police Department.

Heuston is an expert in fighting computer crimes and bot nets.

“It's probably the most meteoric rise of criminal activity in the history of crime and mankind,” said Heuston.

However, Heuston said the response to this unprecedented organized crime wave has been almost non-existent. He said the organized crime groups behind this high tech crime are making billions of dollars a year.

In many ways it’s the perfect crime. It’s next to impossible for law enforcement to do anything about it.

That’s because the crooks hide behind borders that even FBI agents can’t cross.

Heuston thinks the Botnet attacks are going to get more and more sophisticated so we all need to get educated in a hurry.

This cyberwar is all about money and the enemy has figured out how to use our own computers to make untold fortunes.

Protecting your computer from Bots

The bot herders are looking for unprotected computers.

Your best defense is to make sure your computer is always protected.

Make sure your anti-virus software is always up to date.

Run it at least once a week, experts say because of the bot net threat, even once a day is now a good idea.

The lowdown on bots

Are you infected?

Craig Schiller's book on botnets

Who's behind criminal bot networks