Google sees spam spike in Q2
Monday, July 6, 2009
Spam email levels surged 53 percent higher in the second quarter of 2009 over the previous quarter, according to Google, which warned that new spammers may have ramped up their efforts since the takedown of the botnet command-and-control server 3FN last month.
Although 3FN's shutdown resulted in an immediate 30 percent drop in spam, it created a market opportunity for new spammers who have made up ground since then, posted Amanda Kleha on Google's official enterprise blog.
"Over the coming months, we anticipate watching new players once again drive spam levels back up," Kleha said in the post.
3FN, a San Jose-based ISP, was ordered shut down June 4 after the Federal Trade Commission complained the ISP knowingly hosted command-and-control servers for botnets which distributed more than 4,500 malicious software programs.
The FTC alleged that the ISP actively recruited criminals seeking to distribute spam and illegal content, ranging from spyware and viruses to pornography, and shielded its clients by ignoring take-down requests and shifting sites to other IP addresses to evade detection.
Google said image spam and viruses sent as email attachments - spam techniques that spam filters have already learned to catch - have surged since 3FN went down. One theory about this, the company said, is that some new players in the spam game are just getting warmed up.
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