It's been almost a week since the Federal Trade Commission had the allegedly rogue Pricewert ISP shut down, and it seems like the Internet has indeed been a safer, or I should say slightly less dangerous, place.
The FTC charged that Pricewert's distribution of illegal, malicious, and harmful content and deployment of botnets that compromised thousands of computers caused substantial consumer injury and was an unfair practice, in violation of federal law.
According to Symantec, the Cutwail botnet--one of the most notorious botnets, accounting for up to 35 percent of all spam in May across the globe--experienced a major blow to its track record after the shutdown late Thursday of Internet service provider Pricewert.
Another botnet Pricewert is allegedly involved with is the Pushdo, which was also reportedly affected. Both Pushdo and Cutwail reportedly used 3FN, one of the names Pricewert did business under, as botnet control servers.
According to the data released Monday by TRACElabs, the overall spam volume index has been reduced by 15 percent since Thursday. However the day-by-day number has gradually increased.
This means a couple of things.
First, either this was a coincidence or Pricewert was indeed involved in this nasty business. It's important to note that the company has not been convicted of any wrongdoings. The first court hearing is scheduled for June 15.
Second, it's likely that the spammers will soon recover from this heavy blow as many similar companies are based outside of the U.S., where the anti-spam laws are not strictly enforced.
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I agree that the celebration will definitely be short-lived...as the bad guys will pack up shop and move locations - perhaps to Eastern Europe or Asia.While they will move to areas beyond our legal control, it is important that we lead by example and aggressively go after those groups that are operating right under our nose...on our home turf.
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