... and I have no idea what OS it is exploiting to do its business. No idea, zip, nothing, nada.
Anyone with an educated guess as to what that OS might be?
P.S. I was lying, I know who the culprit is. Don't bother giving suggestions.
Rustock botnet sends 39 percent of all spam
Summary
Botnets are now responsible for sending 95 percent of all spam and almost half of that spam comes from a single botnet, Rustock.
Topics
Botnets are now responsible for sending 95 percent of all spam, up from 84 percent in April, and almost half of that spam comes from a single botnet, Rustock.
Rustock sent 41 percent of the world's botnet spam in August, up from 32 percent in April. This is despite the network actually shrinking in size from 2.5 million to 1.3 million bots over the same period, security company Symantec said on Tuesday. This means Rustock is currently responsible for 39 percent of all the world's spam emails.
The reason for the rise in spam from the botnet is that it has stopped using transport layer security (TLS) encryption, Wood said. By foregoing TLS encryption, Symantec believes, Rustock has been able speed up the rate at which it can send spam email, because it longer takes a performance hit from encrypting messages.
For more of this story, read Rustock botnet responsible for 39 percent of all spam on ZDNet UK.
Talkback Most Recent of 8 Talkback(s)
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OS Reload25th Aug 2010 -
RE: Rustock botnet sends 39 percent of all spam
@OS Reload
It was linux because it comes with a built in smtp server on every install. Once the linux box is rooted through the telnet port the spammers are free to send email through said linux box.
Loverock Davidson25th Aug 2010 -
When in a conversation about Operating Systems don't you feel like...
... don't you feel like the strabic contestant at a duck shooting competition?
You do huh. I figured you would, you can't seem to get one on target.OS Reload25th Aug 2010 -
RE: Rustock botnet sends 39 percent of all spam
@OS Reload
When in conversations about an OS, I feel the need to spank you every time the subject comes up like I did just now. LOL!!Loverock Davidson26th Aug 2010 -
XP would be my guess
@OS Reload
You asked.
NonZealot25th Aug 2010 -
Interesting that botnet is shrinking
While correlation is not causation, it is interesting to me that the botnet is shrinking at approximately the same rate as XP's market share. It would be one data point that shows Vista and Windows 7 security may be very effective in the real world. While much of the malware will technically run on vista / windows 7, it looks quite likely that it simply isn't as effective on the newer os's. Great news!NonZealot25th Aug 2010 -
Interesting observation. Doesn't correlate with user prudence, though
@NonZealot
The vast, *vast* majority of malware is still installed by users through social engineering schemes and are not tied to any weakness in operating systems.
As long as we want the user - and not the vendor - to be in control of the desktop system, we'll have to live with the wetware being the most vulnerable component. By far.
Some fanatics who are pushing alternative operating systems to satisfy their misguided late-adolescent desire for feeling part of something important will have you believe that proliferation of malware is somehow exclusive to Windows.
They are of course ignoring the fact that most (by wide margin) of compromised servers are running Linux. And on servers you don't have wetware trying to install codecs downloaded from pr0n sites. What does that say about relative security of the OSes, once you take the wetware out of the equation?
honeymonster25th Aug 2010 -
Wanted dead or alive
This means Rustock is currently responsible for 39 percent of all the world's spam emails.
Put a bounty on their heads. Collect reward. Problem solved.
klumper26th Aug 2010
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
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