Internet - Now with 18% less spam.

[busydude]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18898971

A botnet which experts believe sent out 18% of the world's spam email has been shut down, a security firm said.

Grum's control servers were mainly based in Panama, Russia and Ukraine.
Security company FireEye and spam-tracking service SpamHaus worked with local internet service providers (ISPs) to shut down the illegal network.

A botnet is a network of computers that has been hijacked by cybercriminals, usually by using malware.

"Grum's takedown resulted from the efforts of many individuals," wrote Atif Mushtaq, a security researcher with FireEye.

"This collaboration is sending a strong message to all the spammers: Stop sending us spam. We don't need your cheap Viagra or fake Rolex."


'Bad news'

Mr Mushtaq wrote that on Monday he learned that a Dutch server involved in Grum had been shut down. He said it "at least made a dent" in the botnet.

On Tuesday, the command and control servers (CnCs) in Panama had been shut down.

"This good news was soon followed by some bad news," he explained.
"After seeing that the Panamanian server had been shut down, the bot herders moved quickly and started pointing the rest of the CnCs to new secondary servers in Ukraine.

 

[rasczak]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18898971

A botnet which experts believe sent out 18% of the world's spam email has been shut down, a security firm said.

Grum's control servers were mainly based in Panama, Russia and Ukraine.
Security company FireEye and spam-tracking service SpamHaus worked with local internet service providers (ISPs) to shut down the illegal network.

A botnet is a network of computers that has been hijacked by cybercriminals, usually by using malware.

"Grum's takedown resulted from the efforts of many individuals," wrote Atif Mushtaq, a security researcher with FireEye.

"This collaboration is sending a strong message to all the spammers: Stop sending us spam. We don't need your cheap Viagra or fake Rolex."


'Bad news'

Mr Mushtaq wrote that on Monday he learned that a Dutch server involved in Grum had been shut down. He said it "at least made a dent" in the botnet.

On Tuesday, the command and control servers (CnCs) in Panama had been shut down.

"This good news was soon followed by some bad news," he explained.
"After seeing that the Panamanian server had been shut down, the bot herders moved quickly and started pointing the rest of the CnCs to new secondary servers in Ukraine.

And you can add the 18% back in.

 

[rivan]

Lol, bot herder.

I sort of want that as a title.

 

[dighn]

they should actually take over the botnet and send a cleaner payload. oh and lemonparty the infected machines as punishment for owner negligence.

 

[ForumMaster]

meh. it's like hydra. take one down, another will take it's place just as quickly.

you need to treat the source, not the symptom (and as much as this sound like it, it's not).

they're trying to take down one botnet at a time. on the other hand, educating people is hard. people are dumb...

 

[Krazy4Real]

And you can add the 18% back in.

This. I don't think it will ever stop.

 

[sactoking]

I saw in a different article that Russia/Ukraine took those servers down immediately by "persuading" the ISPs to shut off access.

 

[dust]

My Yahoo account didn't get the memo...

 

[Jeff7]

But they didn't kill any of the spammers in the night? Oh well...I guess taking down botnets is good, though it'd be good if they'd stay down for more than a few minutes.

And I'm not saying that spammers need to do the murder-suicide thing, but, well, that guy at least had it half-right.