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MessageLabs Gives Botnet Rundown
Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
2009-06-29
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According to a new report from MessageLabs, you can probably blame botnets for about eight out of every ten pieces of spam you receive. And if you'd like to get more specific, MessageLabs went on to identify and describe some of the most powerful botnets around.
 | | MessageLabs Gives Botnet Rundown |  |
Cutwail, for better or worse, came out on top. A MessageLabs representative stated in an email to SecurityProNews that this "largest and most powerful botnet is responsible for 45% of all spam."
Still, the good guys scored some points here, because Cutwail "experienced several hours of downtime on the morning of June 5, 2009, following the shutdown of California-based ISP Pricewert by the FTC and is now at 1/3 of its original capacity."
Next up is Mega-D, and its description reads, "[I]t has been on a steady decline and is now responsible for only 9.3% of spam. However, it's still one of the hardest working botnets in terms of spam per bot per minute."
Then follow Xarvester, Donbot, Grum, and Rustock, all of which also seem to have suffered setbacks at different points, but remain definite threats.
So there's the current rogues' gallery of botnets. We won't blame you if you'd prefer to go into a sort of Abbot Arnold Amaury mode ("Kill them. For the Lord knows those who are his.") rather than learn more details, but the MessageLabs report is available if you're interested.
About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for SecurityProNews, InternetFinancialNews, SearchNewz, and WebProNews.
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