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In March, we announced that Microsoft had, with the help of industry partners and law enforcement, taken down the notorious spamming botnet, Rustock.
Since that time, I’m happy to report that the botnet has stayed dead. Our technical countermeasures have worked effectively to prevent the bot’s self-defense mechanisms from reanimating it. Moreover, in the months since the takedown, we’ve seen the number of infected IP addresses (a loose proxy for the number of infected computers) decline as more and more people update their software or get malware removed from their PCs.
However, keeping the botnet dead and decaying is just one part of our larger objective. To effectively reduce the global volume of cybercrime, we need to successfully deter the criminals who seek to profit from botnets. To prevent future botherders from hijacking computers to spread malware and come-ons for counterfeit pharmaceuticals, we need to hold today’s botherders accountable.
