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| Science & Technology |
| 40% of all spam comes from just one source |
| 2008-03-21 |
| . . . and it's not the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota. Six bots are responsible for 85% of all spam, according to an analysis by Marshal. The Srizbi botnet is the largest single source of spam - accounting for 39% of junk mail messages – followed by the Rustock botnet, responsible for 21% of the spam. Spam coming from the Mega-D botnet was temporarily stemmed after control servers were taken out in mid-February. Somebody hug the people who did that, please! The estimated 35,000 zombie clients associated with the Mega-D botnet were infected with the Ozdok Trojan. After 10 days of inactivity, spam from compromised hosts began flowing again earlier this week, after hackers re-established control. Despite the short offline period, Spam-D accounted for an estimated 11% of junk mail in February. Other active spam botnets include Hacktool.Spammer (AKA Spam-Mailer) and botnets associated with the Pushdo (AKA Pandex) family of malware. The infamous Storm botnet, estimated to have about 85,000 compromised hosts, is thought to be responsible for only 3% of spam. Most of the times, spammers have access to multiple botnets and they have been simultaneously sending spam promoting Express Herbals, a line of male enhancement pills. (almost 70% of spam promotes male enhancement pills) You just can't help wondering what a well-placed JDAM or two could do . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #5 A lot of blame goes to the end users. If people weren't clicking through trying to enlarge their penises there would be no market for spam. Another large dose goes to Microsoft for not plugging the holes that connect their email with their system. Lastly a dose goes to the law for not making it a federal crime punishable by death to insert mallware and viruses onto other peoples computers. I don't care if you are a child or Russian Eurotrash. And for god sakes can't we just cut Nigeria off from all internet access yet. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-03-21 16:10 |
| #4 I prefer the type of enforcement that leaves the harddrive as a single brick of melted composite. When they complain just send their address to all the ISP's who've had to handle the load to sue for stolen services. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-03-21 16:08 |
| #3 The problem is nearly as much the fault of ignorant buttmunches who leave their computers on the net, unprotected, and turned on 24*7, as well as clicking on links in unsolicited email, and visiting sites and allowing trajans to be downlaoded by clicking thru "yes" on the installs without thinking - perfect fodder for botnets. ISP should be REQUIRED to notify people whose computers appear to be comppromised (lots of DOS type packets coming out, or email traffic in excess of statistical norms) - and if there is no reply within 30 days, then SHUT THEIR NET ACCESS OFF - only allow web access and only through a proxy, shut off all other ports. For repeat offenders they get disconnected. If you are virused YOU GET QUARANTINED. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-03-21 15:45 |
| #2 Hmh. I thought it was going to be the DNC. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-03-21 14:39 |
| #1 You just can't help wondering what a well-placed JDAM or two could do . Naaaah that's overkill, just publish the names and E-addresses of the programmers, and nature (Read "Infuriated Geeks") will take care of the problem, they'll never have a working computer again in their whole life. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-03-21 14:12 |