A Single Bot-infected Computer can Spew 25,000 Spam Mails Per Hour

According to Security Company Marshal8e6, which released its new research report, some bot-infected computers have the capacity to send a huge 25,000 spam mails in just one hour.

While experimenting at its research wing TRACElabs' laboratory, Marshal8e6 infected computer systems with the Xarvester and Rustock malware that had formed the globe's nine largest botnets. Accordingly, the company concluded that the two malware the first probably creating botnet Srizbi, were the most effective senders of spam among the nine bot-infected networks. Marshal8e6's TRACElabs found that each of its experimental bots could spew up to 25,000 e-mails an hour, alternatively 600,000 a day, or 4.2 million a week.

The second highly efficient spam bot, according to TRACElabs, was MegaD, a botnet that exploited the situation of McColo Corp.'s shutdown in November 2008. McColo Corp. was the company that hosted several large botnets' command-and-control servers, including Rustock and Srizbi.

Moreover, Marshal8e6, which extended its research to all the nine botnets namely Rustock, Grum, Gheg, Pushdo, Donbot and Bobax, said that these together were responsible for over 70% of the entire spam volume around the world.

Said senior threat analyst Phil Hay at TRACElabs that during the recent years, the company tried to stress the major role that a few chief botnets played with respect to modern spam. ComputerWorld published this on April 22, 2009.

Explaining further Hay said that part of their new research related to comprehending the sources of spam as well as botnets that boosted modern spam distribution. According to him, the idea was to develop processes and algorithms that followed the distribution of spam from the botnet that sent it.

Meanwhile, some popular botnets that TRACElabs rated as comparatively low include Waledac. This botnet which, according to analysts, came in succession of the Storm botnet of 2007-08, had been drawing attention recently when it came into existence and expanded with computers that were contaminated with Conficker. The botnet is capable of spewing 7,000 messages per hour, alternatively 168,000 a day.

Besides, security researchers at Finjan stated that according to reports, about 45% of the contaminated bots belonged to the United States.

Related article: A New "Blackmailing" Variant Creeps Around…

» SPAMfighter News - 5/1/2009