In today’s Washington Post, journalist Ellen Nakashima writes that the number of bot-infected computers continues to increase, especially overseas. Bots are a serious problem. Hackers can use them to take over computers and "robotically" instruct them to send spam or steal personal information that can lead to identity theft and real financial harm. In addition, an infected computer can lose irreplaceably precious data like family photos, videos and personal documents.

Comcast is taking some of the most aggressive and proactive steps in the industry to prevent malicious bots from taking over our customers’ computers. Last October, we launched a comprehensive initiative called "Constant Guard" which includes a dedicated staff of highly-trained security professionals whose job it is to help proactively detect and contact customers who we believe may be infected by a bot. We can also help our customers remove the bot and teach them how to get protected and back up on the Internet.

As Ellen points out in her article, by helping to remove some of the "noise" in the networks caused by bots, Comcast is aiding the potential identification of "higher-order threats that could compromise critical computer systems."

We remain vigilant in our work to help our customers protect themselves. For example, as part of our comprehensive effort to protect our customers, we recently began to offer our customers the #1 rated Internet safety software program from Symantec – the Norton™ Security Suite, powered by Norton 360 technology – which we offer for no additional charge. We also help promote greater awareness about what parents and individuals can do to protect themselves from bots and other online threats through our Security Web site at www.comcast.net/security. The site is open to anyone and we encourage everyone to take a few minutes to read some of the information we have there so we can all be better aware of how to protect ourselves, our children and our digital assets from bots and hackers.

In the meantime, we’ll keep up the fight against bots.