Spam In February Escalates Due To Botnets
According to Symantec, spam now officially accounts for almost ninety per cent of email worldwide. Two Botnets have 
caused this spam escalation. These botnets go by the names of Grum and Rustock. Grum started creating problems in February which increases the number of spam that was generated by fifty one percent. Rustock also started creating problems last month and has increased the spam levels by twenty five per cent.
It has also been reported that that one of the hottest scams on the internet which is pharmaceutical spam is now responsible for over sixty five per cent of spam across the entire world. “Whether the spammers are trying to clear this spam run more quickly or have discovered that it is successful, they have certainly been using multiple botnets to distribute high-volume spam campaigns in February, “declared Symantec MessageLabs Intelligence senior analyst Paul Wood.
The Waledac botnet also gained some attention recently. It has been claimed that Microsoft was actually granted a court order on February the 22nd which actually shut down over two hundred and seventy seven domain names which were related to the spread of the malicious Waladec.
“Malware connected to Waledac are not distributed by the botnet itself but are sent by other botnets,” Wood said.”Recently, Waledac malware has been sent from the Cutwail botnet. Also noteworthy is that spammers using the Waledac malware seem particularly focused on the major free Webmail hosting services using email addresses in use by individuals. Waledac is adept at evading traditional dormant honeypot addresses.”
The number of spam has escalated to an alarming degree and computer users have been urged to be aware of these factors. It is imperative that all computer users take the concept of computer security seriously and also make use of decent antispyware removal tools. It is suggested that all computer users make use of up to a decent antivirus and also update their software on a regular basis.
