Google: Spammers Regroup After ISP Takedowns
Thursday, July 2. 2009
Spammers are pumping out an increasing number of garbage messages as they regain their capacity to send spam through hacked PCs, according to the latest statistics released by Google on Wednesday.
Google releases quarterly statistics from its Postini antispam group. For the second quarter, spam volumes are up 53 percent over the first quarter of this year, said Adam Swidler, product marketing manager for Google Enterprise.
Compared to the same period a year prior, spam volumes are up 6 percent. Google posted more information about spam on its enterprise blog.
Google filters around 3 billion to 3.5 billion spam messages a day for its 50,000 or so customers. Spam volumes have been increasingly erratic as some ISPs notorious for allowing spammers to use their infrastructure have been taken offline, Swidler said.
Last month, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission persuaded a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order to shut down Pricewert, an ISP that did business under the names 3FN and APS Telecom. The FTC said Pricewert was entwined with child pornographers, hackers and malicious software developers.
Swidler said Google immediately noticed a 30 percent drop in spam following the shutdown. Pricewert's closure cramped spammers' capacity to send spam through compromised home computers that form botnets.
Bookmark with:
Continue reading "Google: Spammers Regroup After ISP Takedowns "
