Fergie's Tech Blog

Spam Levels Fluctuate As Crooks Try To Revive Botnets

Gregg Keizer writes on ComputerWorld:

Two weeks after a hosting firm's shutdown sent global spam volumes plummeting, some researchers continue to claim that junk mail rates remain dramatically down, while others say spam has already bounced back.

The shutdown of California-based McColo Corp., a company that hosted a staggering variety of cybercriminal activity, on Nov. 11 cut spam by as much as 75% in the first few days after its upstream Internet providers pulled the plug. The shutdown slashed spam volumes because some of the planet's biggest spam-sending botnets were controlled from servers hosted by McColo, according to security researchers who had long urged the company's disconnection from the Web.

While spam initially slid off a digital cliff, two weeks later it's unclear whether spammers have resumed their usual practices.

posted by Fergie @ 11/25/2008 03:08:00 PM