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Report: Spam down 33 percent after Rustock takedown

The successful takedown of the Rustock botnet cut the volume of spam across the world by one-third, according to Symantec's March 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report.

By the end of last year, the notorious botnet was responsible for sending out 44 billion spam messages per day, or more than 47 percent of the world's total output, making it the leading purveyor of spam. Though Rustock lost some steam this year, it still managed to send out more than 13 billion daily spam e-mails earlier this month prior to its takedown, said Symantec.

But legal actions by Microsoft and raids … Read more

McAfee: Spam down, but malware up

Spam hit a two-year low this past quarter, but malware is at an all-time high, according to McAfee's latest Threats Report.

Out today, the "McAfee Threats Report: Third Quarter 2010" (PDF) found that though spam is still high, it continued its overall decline from January, both globally and nationally. With the exception of Russia, Greece, Belarus, and Indonesia, all countries tracked by McAfee showed a drop in spam levels.

So much for the good news.

On the down side, malware has reached an all-time high, according to the security technology company, which identified an average of 60,000 new threats each day in the third quarter, almost quadrupling since 2007. For 2010 so far, McAfee has discovered 14 million unique pieces of malware, a million more than this time last year.

One of the more "sophisticated" threats that reared its head this year was the Zeus botnet, designed to steal information during banking transactions. Over the third quarter, Zeus expanded its scope by targeting mobile devices, specifically attempting to grab SMS messages sent to validate the transactions. McAfee also noticed a rise in e-mail campaigns launched to spread the botnet by sending out messages claiming to come from FedEx, the IRS, the U.S. Post Office, and other such parties.… Read more