Peter Dinham
Thursday, 01 October 2009 08:24
Business IT -
Security
Page 1 of 3
New botnets are reportedly causing more havoc on the Internet, with botnets now responsible for sending 87.9 percent of all spam, including one of the oldest and largest botnets which has doubled in size in just four months.
A new botnet – Maazben – has experienced rapid
growth since its infancy in late May this year, mainly sending out
casino-related spam, while Rustock, one of the oldest and largest, has
doubled in size since June and, according to Symantec, “established a
predictable spamming pattern.”
In its September Q3 global MessageLabs spam report, Symantec says that
in Australia spam levels remained relatively the same as August, at
90.7% of all email received by businesses and that spam rates are still
higher than the global average of 86.4%.
With virus activity in Australia, Symantec reports that activity rates
halved in September compared to August with one in 626. 5 emails
received containing a virus, compared to one in 308.3 in August.
According to the Symantec report, the botnet Maazben’s growth has
accelerated during the past month from 0.5 percent of all spam in
August to 1.4 percent of all spam in September.
“Rustock is the largest in terms of number of bots at 1.3 to 1.9
million bots but has kept its output per bot relatively low. In
addition, Rustock has settled into a predictable spam pattern beginning
everyday at 3 a.m. ET, peaking at 7 a.m. ET and ceasing spamming at 7
p.m. ET. It then rests for eight hours before beginning again.”
Symantec also says that Rustock is the only botnet with a regular spam
cycle, and as one of the most dominant botnets, is responsible for 10
percent of all spam, with its spam pattern reflected in overall total
daily spam patterns.
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