Spam Down 40 Percent in Rustock's Absence

The takedown of the Rustock botnet has measurably reduced the amount of spam e-mail, according to an IBM Internet Security Systems report. IBM said it has observed a sustained drop off of between 35% and 40% in global spam levels almost a week after law enforcement in the U.S. and abroad, along...

Reports: Rustock Born in the USA

U.S. hosting firms accounted for the bulk of the command and control centers for the Rustock botnet, with many firms claiming that they had no idea they were harboring an illegal criminal network on their infrastructure, according to a story in Krebsonsecurity.com. Threatpost reported last week...

Lessons From the Rustock Takedown

As a follow-up to the Rustock botnet news, Microsoft have identified themselves as the key instigators of the takedown. This is the second time Microsoft’s legal team has been actively involved in combating the botnet menace – and they obviously learned from their previous attempt at trying to...

Threatpost News Roundup on ITEC This Week

It was a big week in security, what with the takedown of the Rustock botnet takedown, there was a major attack against security firm RSA Security. Threatpost Editor Paul Roberts had a chance to sit down with Bill Sell, host of the weekly IT security news show ITEC This Week on the Pulse Network...

Alex Lanstein on the Rustock Botnet Takedown

Dennis Fisher talks with Alex Lanstein of FireEye about this week’s takedown of the Rustock botnet, the important legal precedent it helped set with Microsoft’s lawsuit and the mechanics behind the operation and dismantling of large-scale botnets. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65 Subscribe to t...

Microsoft, FireEye Take Down Notorious Rustock Botnet

Being a botnet operator has traditionally been a fairly reliable and easy way to make money. But it’s starting to become a slightly dicier occupation these days, as evidenced by the news of the takedown of the venerable and virulent Rustock botnet by researchers at Microsoft and FireEye. Rustock...

Microsoft brings down world's biggest spam network !

A Microsoft lawsuit, unsealed earlier today, is responsible for causing government raids last Wednesday that lead to the downfall of the world's biggest spam network, Rustock. Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit used information gained in its 2010 takedown of the Waledac botnet to work with the U.S...

Rustock Botnet: Dead Or Just Reloading?

Reports indicate that the massive drop in spam levels are linked to the sudden disappearance of the Rustock botnet. However, recent history suggests the interruption may only be temporary. Spamhaus’s Composite Spam Blocklist CBL claims that dozens of Rustock’s internet servers, which for years ha...

New Analysis Shows Pushdo Botnet Sent Trillions of Spam Emails, Generated Millions in Profits

A new, detailed analysis of the operations of the infamous Cutwail/Pushdo botnet shows that the network, which had been he target of several takedown attempts in the last couple of years, is not only amazingly resilient, but also is incredibly prolific, with one section of the botnet sending more...

Methods For Measuring Botnet Threat Woefully Inadequate

Current methods for measuring the size of botnets are flawed and may be hampering efforts to fight back against the networks of zombie computers, according to a new report from The European Network and Information Security Agency ENISA. The agency issued a 150 page report, “Botnets: Measurement,...

Trojan & Botnet Activities Increased in February-March !

Trojans were the most prolific malware threat in February-March, and collaboration seems to be the name of the game in malware development and distribution. Trojan-based attacks continue to be the biggest malware threat in February, but PDF exploits aren't far behind, according to several securit...

Launching AnonLeaks, Ready To Dump More HBGary E-mails !

Anonymous used to be all about disrupting the Web sites of companies that helped block WikiLeaks' funding. Now it's starting to act like WikiLeaks itself. The group is planning, as early as today, to release 27,000 e-mails from the server of Greg Hoglund, the chief executive of software security...

Malware Exploding, Especially On Mobile Devices !

Mobile malware is growing, and Adobe is the main vector of attack, according to new figures from security firm McAfee, which were published on Tuesday. Cybercriminals are adopting strategies to benefit from a more mobile device users in the report, McAfee Threat Report: Fourth Quarter 2010...

Donbot Botnet Exploiting Bank of America Customers

A phishing campaign via the Donbot botnet has been spamming unsuspecting Bank of America customers, according to a blog post by Rodel Mendrez at M86 Security Labs. Online banking customers who’ve been targeted receive an e-mail that appears to be from Bank of America instructing the user to confi...

Research Reveals Huge Cache of FTP, Email Credentials Stolen by Waledac

Researchers have discovered that the gang behind the once-and-future botnet Waledac has gathered nearly 500,000 stolen passwords for email accounts, along with close to 125,000 sets of pilfered credentials for FTP accounts. The discovery isn’t so surprising in its details, but rather in its scope...

Why Takedowns Don't Reduce Online Crime

The last year has seen a string of takedowns of botnet command-and-control servers, malware drop zones, spam operations and other pieces of the crimeware infrastructure, each of which made a dent in one way or another. But the question of whether the takedowns have had any lasting effect on the...

Top Crimeware Hosting Provider Taken Offline

VolgaHost, a hosting provider notorious in the security community for hosting botnet command-and-control servers and other services related to online crime has been taken offline, and a number of servers involved in the Zeus crimeware operation are offline, as a result. The hosting provider, whic...

Conficker Working Group: Efforts To Fight Botnet A Mixed Bag

A new report from the Conficker Working Group concludes that coordinated efforts to stomp out the botnet were a mixed bag: helping to thwart the worm’s efforts to register Web domains that it used to spread, but failing to remove the worm from infected Windows computers. The report released this...

Week in Security: Stuxnet Revelations and Black Hat Happenings

Stuxnet chat saturated the news this week after the New York Times got the cyber security echo chamber going with a story delving into the mysterious worm. But Stuxnet was hardly the only news this week, which also saw new research from the Black Hat Briefings conference in Washington D.C. and...

Where To Buy Your Tools From Hackers ?

Software that facilitates the attack by beginners online scammers and the future is big business anarchists, says Karlin Lillington The suites are equipped with new software with all the trappings of modern software now offers: cloud computing hosting, software as a service SaaS functions,...