Botnet affects 4.5 million

[Taffycat]

Here are two, slightly different "takes" on the botnet, currently in the news:

'Indestructible' botnet snares 4.5 million computers
Security researchers have discovered a new botnet of more than 4.5 million virus-infected computers that they say is "practically indestructible"

Telegraph report

But the good news, according to a technology website:

Despite the sophistication of the botnet, however, fears of an unstoppable TDL4 malware outbreak appear to be misguided.

Security vendor Trend Micro has long followed the TDSS malware family and the company has been studying TDL4 in recent weeks.

Threat research manager Jamz Yaneza likened the early worries over the TDL4 outbreak to the 2010 Conficker malware scare. He told V3.co.uk that while the malware botnet itself can be difficult to detect and remove, such bootkit infections can in fact be neutralised by Microsoft's own system tools.

www.v3.co.uk