Spammers Come Together Once Again Following Botnet Takedowns

According to Kaspersky Lab the security company, which released certain statistics, following several botnets' shutdown between July and December 2010, e-mail spammers have once again retrieved operations to distribute more and more junk. CBR published this in news on March 28, 2011.

Actually, when the notorious Cutwail/Pushdo botnet was shutdown during August 2010, there was a remarkable decline in the total amount of junk e-mails originating from USA. Says Kaspersky, this decline was as low as 1-1.5 percentage points. But, from then on, the spam rate of U.S has been constantly rising so that during February 2011, it reached the peak of 4.27%.

Meanwhile, India continues to distribute spam in the largest amount worldwide. Approximately 8.83% of junk e-mails across the globe originate from India, whereas Russia stands second at 4.26%.

Moreover, Brazil climbed up the list and stood on No.3, accounting for an extra 0.41% of total spam whereas Indonesia rose to occupy the 4th position accompanied with South Korea on No.5.

Also, during October 2010, another botnet the Bredolab too was shutdown after it had contaminated 30m PCs across the globe.

Says senior spam analyst Maria Namestnikova at Kaspersky Lab, spam mail purveyors are regaining vigor and massive volumes of spam are sure to arrive soon. According to her, spam mailers are slowly acquiring their position once again after prominent botnets were taken down during the last six months of 2010, while a return of e-mail junk is expected at 81-82% by the time the months April-May 2011 arrive. CBR reported this.

Significantly, according to the February 2011 report of Kaspersky on worldwide operation of junk e-mails, spam mails were of 2 distinct versions; one, which simply garnered e-mail ids for proliferating on and on, while the other that seized financial information and other confidential data for fraud. Reveals the company that 3.18% of the total electronic mails dispatched during February 2011 contained malware, accounting for an increase of 0.43% from January 2011.

Nevertheless, Web-surfers will observe spam volumes as returning to their increased levels shortly when the rate will touch a huge peak of 81-82% no later than April-May 2011.

Related article: Spammers Continue their Campaigns Successfully

» SPAMfighter News - 4/6/2011