Microsoft Declares Award for Provider of Rustock Info

Software giant Microsoft states that it has fixed an award of $250,000 for anyone who will give information about the controllers of Rustock and thus enable in arresting the botnet's perpetrators. Rustock, which was the greatest spam distributor during its most active period, has been recently taken down. The Register published this on July 18, 2011.

The announcement, made on July 18, 2011, follows four months since Microsoft conducted an innovative campaign for dismantling Rustock that assembled a total of 1m personal computers. Indeed since the dismantling, that number has reduced 50%, while Microsoft is already advertising through Russian newspapers for tracing the operators of Rustock.

What's more, Microsoft has filed a civil suit against those responsible for the botnet; however, it hasn't succeeded in finding them. The company, during June 2011, advertised within Russian newspapers informing Rustock controllers regarding the lawsuit. Currently, it's applying more initiative by pledging the hefty dollar sum to anybody helping in identifying the perpetrators.

Stated Senior Attorney Richard Boscovich for the Digital Crimes Division of Microsoft, the award offer was the culmination of recognizing Rustock as being behind several criminal operations as well as caused for highlighting the company's commitment towards tracing those running the malicious network. The Seattle Times published this on July 18, 2011.

Additionally according to Microsoft, the botnet had been utilized for several other crimes too some of them being advertising unapproved or fake editions of pharmaceuticals along with infringing upon the trademarks of Pfizer Inc., the manufacturers of medicines, and Microsoft.

Says Vice-President of research Gunter Ollmann at Damballa, promising hefty cash puts more pressure on each one associated with Rustock as also expectedly works like a wake up call for any other botnet herder who has chosen to deliver spam for shaping his own business. Further, while the cash reward will threaten the Rustock owners, it'll also pressurize other informants towards revealing any information they have. The 250K dollar is no mean sum towards tempting many, particularly whilst so many rival groups exist inside the junk e-mail distributing botnet industry, the VP reasoned. DarkReading published this on July 18, 2011.

Related article: Microsoft Patches Live OneCare to Tackle Quarantined E-Mails

» SPAMfighter News - 7/27/2011