Spammers would rather switch than fight
Spammers are switching from botnets to compromised email accounts in response to a botnet crackdown, according to a report released today by information security firm Commtouch.
Infosecurity.Com - The change in tactics by spammers has emerged as spam levels dropped dramatically after the takedown of high-profile botnets, such as Rustock, Commtouch's Internet Threat Trend Report found.Spam levels averaged 113 billion messages per day during the second quarter of 2011, the lowest in three yeas, according to Commtouch. The company said its report reflects the results of its analysis of billions of Internet transactions daily within the company’s cloud-based GlobalView Network.
“Our experience with these things is that once the botnet goes down, the spam levels drop. And then they subsequently shoot up again after a few weeks. But this time we saw spam levels stay at the relatively low levels they dropped to”, said Avi Turiel, director of product marketing at Commtouch.
“We have seen a lot more usage by spammers of compromised accounts…where they have stolen user credentials, logged into legitimate users’ accounts, and sent spam from these accounts”, Turiel told Infosecurity. More
