Security Focus warns that the number of botnets has almost tripled in the last couple of weeks:

"The weekly tally of bot-infected PCs tracked by the group rose to nearly 1.2 million this week, up from less than 400,000 infected machines two weeks ago. The surge reversed a sudden drop in infected systems--from 500,000 to less than 400,000--last December."

Not only that botnets and zombie computers make us all growl under the load of spam, but allowing your computer to become a hostage is also bad for your surfing :)

The ISP will soon enough ban you, you will lose all you worked for in virtual life whilst online, your WOW (and other online game) character might get lonely and die, your MySpace will become obsolete and your won't get your daily dose of celebrity gossip. Believe you me, a lot can go wrong in two weeks without internet service!

The only thing to do is to protect yourself and your loved ones, here's my tutorial on how to stay safe and don't become a part of a botnet.