Spam reduced following Pricewert shutdown
Summary
Topics
It's been almost a week since the Federal Trade Commission had the allegedly rogue Pricewert ISP shut down, and it seems like the Internet has indeed been a safer, or I should say slightly less dangerous, place.
The FTC charged that Pricewert's distribution of illegal, malicious, and harmful content and deployment of botnets that compromised thousands of computers caused substantial consumer injury and was an unfair practice, in violation of federal law.
According to Symantec, the Cutwail botnet--one of the most notorious botnets, accounting for up to 35 percent of all spam in May across the globe--experienced a major blow to its track record after the shutdown late Thursday of Internet service provider Pricewert.
Another botnet Pricewert is allegedly involved with is the Pushdo, which was also reportedly affected. Both Pushdo and Cutwail reportedly used 3FN, one of the names Pricewert did business under, as botnet control servers.
According to the data released Monday by TRACElabs, the overall spam volume index has been reduced by 15 percent since Thursday. However the day-by-day number has gradually increased.
This means a couple of things.
First, either the timing of these changes was a coincidence or Pricewert was indeed involved in this nasty business. It's important to note that the company has not yet been convicted of any wrongdoings. The first court hearing is scheduled for June 15.
Second, it's likely that the spammers will soon recover from this heavy blow as many similar companies are based outside of the U.S., where the anti-spam laws are not strictly enforced.
Nonetheless this for now looks like an apparent victory for the authorities and for all the Internet users. In terms of its long-term impact on spam, Symantec's MessageLabs Senior Anti-Spam Technologist Matt Sergeant told CNET News: "For now, we will see spam levels lower than usual, but we expected the swift comeback of Cutwail. The spammers learned that they can't put all their eggs in one basket and need to have backup command and control."
It's indeed wait and see, but so far I personally have received less spam in the last few days. How about you? Share your thoughts about this case and your recent spam experience, in the comment area below.
This article was originally posted on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 10 Talkback(s)
-
No change for gmail
It hasn't slowed to spam to my gmail account,which was flooded the day i opened it without using it for a week lol. Hope they get the gmail spammers too.
Stan5710th Jun 2009 -
Temporary benefit
Like the McColo shutdown, other bad actors will pop up to take their place. It is encouraging to start to see these shutdowns become a more common occurrence.
ejhonda10th Jun 2009 -
RE: Spam reduced following Pricewert shutdown
The level of spam I experience now bears no comparison with a couple of years back. It used to be much, much worse.
LordLiverpool10th Jun 2009 -
bobiroc10th Jun 2009 -
Re: DEATH TO ALL SPAMMERS!!!!
A W K W A R D . . .
deckhopper@...10th Jun 2009 -
brokndodge@...10th Jun 2009 -
Feeling the positive too
Spam in my organization is not necessarily down 65%, but I can say that it is down to 65% of total email coming in, compared to 78% a week ago. Like another said, only a temporary thing but I like to see these take-downs are becoming more common. Today I realized a significant reduction in infected SPAM too. So much so that I had to tear through my email based AV system to make sure we didn't have a problem with it. I call that a good waste of time
Death to all spammers. Hang em naked by the toenails in the public square for all to humiliate and torture!
djmik10th Jun 2009 -
Spammers are like roaches.. you can never really get rid of them.
They will just move to the next structure that has not been cleaned.
I would like to see someone create an offensive mail server. One that detects spam and if a certain percentage is reached from a particular host, it instigates an attack on that host.
Been_Done_Before10th Jun 2009 -
What is spam?
Really. I haven't had significant spam in over 10 years now. I doubt that "lucky" is the reason, I believe that spam has been tamed. I used to get a lot of spam "in the old days", but I wouldn't know what that is today.
Roger Ramjet10th Jun 2009 -
RE: Spam reduced following Pricewert shutdown
I think this article is 50% bogus and 50% hopeful. As a web host, I can attest to the continuing onslaught of spam and the fact that it takes way too much time to combat. Spam reduced following the Pricewert shutdown? Nope.
dennis@...11th Jun 2009
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Facebook Activity
