Global Spam E-mail Down After Arrests Of Botnet Owners

[engine]

Global Spam E-mail Down After Arrests Of Botnet Owners [bbc.co.uk]

Levels of spam have fallen by almost 50% since August 2010, suggest figures.

Figures compiled by security firm Symantec show that the amount of junk e-mail messages flowing around the net has dropped 47% in three months.

Kaspersky Labs noted a similar fall from July to September, when spam levels fell to 81.1% of all e-mails

The decline was put down to the arrests of those behind spam-sending botnets, and intelligence work that saw other spamming systems shut down.

[Seb7]

spam-sending botnets could be much better controlled. ISPs could quite easily message clients found to be sending lots of SMTP traffic. Just along the lines of did-you-know.. and heres some tips on fixing it... and it can save you money on your broadband bill for over usage.

Also helps if the major anti-virus vendors could detect a lot more malware. I've been very surprised how I recently found a number of machines containing malware where none of the top 10 venders were able to detect it. Highly recommend Malware bytes though.

Anyhow, hope they make an example of them in court, as to help deter others.

[incrediBILL]

spam-sending botnets could be much better controlled.

The ISPs could actually intercept and block the C&C channel of the botnet once it's detected and knock the whole thing offline yet they don't.

Besides, why don't authorities go after the businesses promoted in the spams instead of just the spammers themselves?

Cut off the flow of money and you cut off the reason to spam.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

The figures depend on what you call junk. I get Amazon and eBay and other big company offers daily which are spam to me but don't fall under the label of actual spam.

[LifeinAsia]

Besides, why don't authorities go after the businesses promoted in the spams instead of just the spammers themselves?

Exactly! In many cases they are one and the same. (Most of domains in the spam I get are registered by a handful of people.)

Whenever I got junk faxes in the past, I reported them to the FTC based on the phone number of the advertiser, not the fax number of the sender (which was usually blocked anyway).

[lexipixel]

I'd like to know why something like Automattic's "Akismet" (the spam filter for WordPress) can't be used to identify and kill spam at the ISP level.

How many messages mentioning "VI*AGR*A" and "CH*EA*P RO*LEX WA*TCH" with ".ru" links does it take to spot a pattern?

[koan]

Good! May they be punished to the full extent of the law.

I get Amazon and eBay and other big company offers daily which are spam to me

They're not spam if you created an account with them (opt-in). Then all you have to do is change your email preferences to unsubscribe. Real spam is unsolicited.

[garyv]

This story was obviously researched before Aweber was compromised again a few weeks ago. Because I guarantee you that this last month has been a stellar month for spam.

[pageoneresults]

At first I thought it was déjà vu when I saw this topic. Then I realized that this typically happens around this time of the year. Give it a few weeks, it will be back to normal based on historical activities in this area.

Here's one from November 2008

E-mail Spam Levels Up For Some, Down For Others
[WebmasterWorld.com...]

I don't really think about it that much anymore. Spam is part of the email fabric. Without it, most of our inboxes would be empty! We also have some pretty nifty procedures in place to minimize it. I can just imagine what it would be like without the preventive measures.

[enigma1]

We also have some pretty nifty procedures in place to minimize it

Like what procedures? On the one hand the sending hosts take ages to sent mail, when/if they ever do, while the receiver re-filters it for spam. So behind regular ISPs I see a 50% chance of an email reaching its destination. And they keep rotating the ips so spam and legit mail may or may not fall through.

To tell you the truth I get more damage from the filters indirectly, than from the spammers.

[mkopler]

how to Refuse spam totally?

[np2003]

Bill Gates said spam would be something of the past years ago... WHAT happened@!@?

[graeme_p]

Bill Gates said spam would be something of the past years ago

If you are serious, just remember you are talking about the man who thought that Windows would be secure years ago, and that the internet was a passing fad.

@mkopler, the one thing that works is white-list only.

[Seb7]

Digital vaccine needed to fight botnet:
[bbc.co.uk...]

In Europe, about 5-10% of PCs on broadband net links were hijacked and part of a botnet in 2009, it suggests.

ISPs are key to wresting control of these machines away from criminals, says the Dutch report.

Initiatives in Germany and Australia show how official help can boost efforts to clean up infected machines.

[enigma1]

the man who thought that Windows would be secure years ago

Well maybe he meant the future windows versions will be secure against the current spam.

Yes if ISPs want to they can minimize it in its current form. But once someone access to the net everything is possible as they are other spam methods apart of regular email.