Zombie PCs generate 80 per cent of spam

Four-fifths of the spam clogging ISPs' mail servers and affecting businesses emanates from so-called zombie home PCs infected with spam Trojans, according to security firm Sandvine.

The company found that Trojans, typically installed surreptitiously by worms or spyware, exploit vulnerabilities to bypass normal email routing and drop spam messages directly into end user machines.

Many of the most well-publicised worm attacks in recent months were launched expressly to install spam Trojans on unsuspecting end users' machines, waiting to be used at a later date as a spam delivery relay, Sandvine warned.

The report also found that the behaviour of spam Trojans taxes ISPs' infrastructures and, in the case of smaller ISPs, creates perceptions that some networks are generating more than their fair share of spam.

"Subscribers' in-boxes are bombarded daily and, while spam filters can provide an effective treatment, the scale and scope of the problem means that additional remedies are needed," said Marc Morin, co-founder and chief technology officer at Sandvine, in a statement.

"As a complement to existing mail server and client-based tools, service providers need to arm themselves with network-based anti-spam defences."

See also:

Unchecked blogs a boon to hackers

Free and anonymous hacking tools storage  15 Apr 2005

UK manufacturers drowning in spam

Convergence of viruses and junk mail hitting the sector hard  10 Feb 2005

'Del Boy' spammers trade on Rolex name

Security firm reports 300 per cent rise in designer watch spam  26 Oct 2004

Spyware

An increasing number of web users are inadvertently downloading software which can trap ID and password information for online bank accounts.  22 Sep 2004

Huge increase in virus-infected spam

Virus writers cash in with latest breed of email threat  17 Aug 2004

Akamai investigates denial of service attack

Affected customers included Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo  17 Jun 2004

One in three PCs hosts spyware or Trojans

Survey of 650,000 consumer PCs found 18 million instances of spyware  16 Jun 2004

ISPs losing battle against spam

Anti-spam measures failing to halt deluge of unwanted email  09 Jun 2004

ITU to hold spam summit

Telcos and ISPs invited to tackle growing menace of junk email  04 Jun 2004

Microsoft to embrace SPF anti-spam tools

Caller ID to be merged with domain authentication scheme to thwart spammers and phishers  27 May 2004

Health and finance top spam subjects

Quack cures and get-rich-quick schemes make up most junk mail  27 May 2004

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