Spam botnet back in business?

Stephen Withers
Friday, 19 August 2011 17:47

Business IT - Security

Security provider Websense has detected a spike in spam activity. Has an old bot network been reactivated, or is there a new botnet in town?

Web, data and email content security provider Websense is reporting a spike in spam activity this month, and suspects that "a spam bot or a bot network is awake."

Some of the spam messages seen by Websense purport to be from FedEx or DHL. Others refer to bogus invoices or credit card issues. The payloads are apparently malicious zip files.

Sophos is similarly reporting spam that poses as DHL notifications or 'inter-company invoices' from well-known companies such as Kraft or KPMG, as well as some that are lesser known in this part of the world (eg, Beazer Homes or Safeco).

Sophos's Graham Cluely described the 'DHL spam' as "particularly aggressive", although the malware being distributed has been around for 18 months or so.

Neither company provided any firm intelligence about the source of the campaigns.

Earlier this week, Vincent Weafer, senior vice president at McAfee Labs, predicted an increase in spam activity "in a month or two". It seems as if it's already happening.