Malign bots from the Internet underworld

In the mid 90s of the last millenium some people from MIT, in particular Pattie Maes, talked about bots as the new friendly helpers for Internet-citizens. The vision was that bots would help people to find information on the Internet, to search for best bargains, to negotiate deals, etc. Only few people at the time worried about how to control the bots once they had been set free to roam the Internet.
On Sunday, 07/01/01 the New York Times warns that "Attack of the zombie computers is a growing threat". Apparently, a scary underworld of bots has been created where bots that have been programmed to create mischief infest PCs in increasing numbers.

RAEM