Tag Archives: Rustock

Homegrown: Rustock Botnet Fed by U.S. Firms

March 21, 2011

Aaron Wendel opened the doors of his business to some unexpected visitors on the morning of Mar. 16, 2011. The chief technology officer of Kansas City based hosting provider Wholesale Internet found that two U.S. marshals, a pair of computer forensics experts and a Microsoft lawyer had come calling, armed with papers allowing them to enter the facility and to commandeer computer hard drives and portions of the hosting firm’s network. Anyone attempting to interfere would be subject to arrest and prosecution.

Taking Stock of Rustock

January 5, 2011

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Global spam volumes have fallen precipitously in the past two months, thanks to a cessation of junk e-mail from Rustock — until recently the world’s most active spam botnet. But experts say those behind Rustock haven’t gone away, but have merely shifted the botnet’s resources toward other money-making activities, such as installing spyware and adware.

Spam Volumes Dip After Spamit.com Closure

October 4, 2010

11 Comments

Spam trackers are seeing a fairly dramatic drop in junk e-mail sent over the past few days, specifically spam relayed by the one of the world’s largest spam botnets – although security experts disagree on exactly which botnet may be throttling back or experiencing problems.