Junk emailers have returned to the Web with a vengeance, doubling volumes of spam in just 24 hours, after a Christmas break which saw volumes plummet 75 per cent.
The return to “business as usual” has been attributed to the so-called Rustock botnet, which specialises in unlicensed pharmaceutical websites and is the biggest single source of global spam
Symantec’s net filtering business MessageLabs reports that other botnets have also returned to business following the end of the festive season. They include Xarvester, which was recently subject to a major blitz on its command and control servers.
Websense reports much the same dramatic surge on global spam volumes over the same time period between Sunday and Monday.
Experts remain mystified over the cause of the Christmas spam ceasefire, as this is said to be the first time such a break has been witnessed. One popular theory is that the people controlling the spam machines simply took a break but there is no real evidence to support this.
It is estimated that 9 out of 10 email messages circulating on the Internet are spam.
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Spam plunges 75% in seasonal blip
