Microsoft Names Two Alleged Zeus Botnet Operators

Three months after initially disrupting the Zeus botnet, Microsoft officials have named two of the people who they think are behind the malware network, a pair of Ukrainians who already are sitting in jail in the UK. From the beginning of the anti-Zeus operation, which became public in March,...

Microsoft Takes Down Kelihos Botnet

Continuing its legal assault on botnet operators and the hosting companies that the criminals use for their activities, Microsoft has announced new actions against a group of people it contends are responsible for the operation of the Kelihos botnet. The company has also helped to take down the...

Microsoft offers $250,000 reward for information of Rustock Botnet

Microsoft offers $250,000 reward for information of Rustock Botnet Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for providing information of Rustock botnet. The Rustock botnet is responsible for a great deal of cyber crime, spam the botnet has capacity for 30 billion spam mails every day, dodgy...

Microsoft offers $250,000 reward for information of Rustock Botnet

Microsoft offers $250,000 reward for information of Rustock Botnet Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for providing information of Rustock botnet. The Rustock botnet is responsible for a great deal of cyber crime, spam the botnet has capacity for 30 billion spam mails every day, dodgy...

Microsoft Offers $250k Reward for Rustock Information

Microsoft is now offering a $250,000 reward to help track down the people behind the notorious Rustock botnet. The company, which helped take down the botnet several months ago, said that it already has some good information on the crew behind the network and is now looking for information to bri...

Rustock Author May Be Former Google Hopeful

As Microsoft’s crusade against the Rustock botnet continues, a new article from Brian Krebs claims the formerly prolific botnet’s author may be a self-described mathematician and software engineer who once sought employment from Google. According to Krebs, who cites court documents filed by the...

Rustock: March, 2011

By the time U.S. Marshals, in the company of Microsoft Corp. attorneys, busted into the data centers of dozens of U.S. hosting firms to shut down the Rustock botnet in March, 2011, it was the main source of global spam. The takedown was notable for the success Microsoft had in using the courts to...

Report: Rustock Operators or Operator

A Krebsonsecurity piece looks into the unknown party behind the Rustock botnet, and whether it may have been operated by just one person. By interviewing investigators involved in the takedown, a joint operation carried out by Microsoft, FireEye, and various law enforcement agencies, Krebs...

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...

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...

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...

After A Lull, Botnets Back In Business

After a lull in the fourth quarter of 2010, spam appears to be back in full force, according to reports from both Websense, Commtouch and Symantec Corp.Spam volume was up 45% in the first half of January after diving in Q4 according to a Commtouch spam report. Reports show the recently dormant...

Spam Volume Recovers After Holiday Break

The amount of spam hitting users’ inboxes fell off a cliff in late December, with many security experts attributing the decline to the sudden disappearance of the Rustock botnet and other networks from the spam business. But the level of spam has begun to gain back some of the ground it lost toda...

Spam Volume Is Way Down…But Why?

The volume of spam e-mail is down…way down. That’s the good news. But experts aren’t exactly sure what’s caused the precipitous drop in spam e-mail or how long it will last. As Brian Krebs reports on his blog, mail security firm M86 is seeing a 40% decline in spam volume since the beginning of...