Major source of Internet spam pulled off the Web

ChampionLLY · 16th Nov 2008, 01:01 PM

"Located in a 30-story office tower in the heart of Silicon Valley, in downtown San Jose, a relatively small firm was involved in a full scale cyber crime network. The McColo Corporation operated the servers located within the building, and they were involved in hosting services for all types of firms that compromised computers to advertise counterfeit designer goods, pharmaceuticals, fake Internet security products and even child pornography by way of e-mail.

Viewing the company’s website is no longer possible, two Internet providers cut off McColo’s connectivity to the Internet. Almost instantaneously, security companies noticed a tremendous drop in the global volume of spam. E-mail security firm IronPort said that spam levels had fallen by almost 66% as of Tuesday evening.

Spam watchdog Spamcop.net stated that there was a decline of 10 - 40 spam emails per second.

At this time, it is not known whether McColo be legally responsible will be for the activities of their clients. At this time there is no confirmation that the company has been charged with a crime.

Private security researcher Jart Armin has been documenting the activity of McColo. She mentioned that currently McColo is hosted at a minimum 40 different child pornography websites, or sites that collect payment for the content. A traffic analysis of one of the sites proved that each one of these sites were generating between 15,000 and 25,000 visitors daily.

For several months, cyber criminals have been utilizing servers at McColo to manage websites that send out new versions of the “Torpig” or “Sinowal” Trojan horse program that is one of the most stealthy malware programs in existence currently.

This is just one more successful move in the government’s quest to go more seriously after spammers. Last month, the FTC seized the assets of Herbal King that was in the business of selling counterfeit prescription drugs. This network was deemed the largest “spam gang” in the world. The spammers utilized the Mega-D botnet, which reportedly was able to send 10 billion e-mail messages per day."

Source: TG Daily - Major source of Internet spam pulled off the Web

mikegas · 16th Nov 2008, 01:40 PM

YAY! .. I hate spam

Max_87 · 16th Nov 2008, 02:07 PM

LOL yay! I'm getting a lot less spam now!

PsYkHoTiK · 16th Nov 2008, 02:20 PM

Yeah I was just telling Chai that I have been getting way less spam (haha was asking him if there was something up LOL).

lee_what2004 · 16th Nov 2008, 03:34 PM

no wonder got days with no spam

Chai · 16th Nov 2008, 03:52 PM

Wow, I just noticed, my spam dropped by at least 75%!

PsYkHoTiK · 16th Nov 2008, 04:48 PM

LMAO!

At first I thought was the mail server busted? Is there something wrong with my Outlook? Is it in offline mode or something? LOL!

ChampionLLY · 16th Nov 2008, 05:15 PM

i notice i've got less spam mails too.. bust them all!

Adrian Wong · 16th Nov 2008, 06:44 PM

Wow... That is a relief!! I get thousands of spams EVERY DAY! It's insane.

lee_what2004 · 16th Nov 2008, 07:01 PM

I never get more than ten
can't imagine thousands of it

16th Nov 2008, 01:01 PM	#1 (permalink)
ChampionLLY News Writer Join Date: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 1,203 Reputation: 716 Rep Power: 12	Major source of Internet spam pulled off the Web "Located in a 30-story office tower in the heart of Silicon Valley, in downtown San Jose, a relatively small firm was involved in a full scale cyber crime network. The McColo Corporation operated the servers located within the building, and they were involved in hosting services for all types of firms that compromised computers to advertise counterfeit designer goods, pharmaceuticals, fake Internet security products and even child pornography by way of e-mail. Viewing the company’s website is no longer possible, two Internet providers cut off McColo’s connectivity to the Internet. Almost instantaneously, security companies noticed a tremendous drop in the global volume of spam. E-mail security firm IronPort said that spam levels had fallen by almost 66% as of Tuesday evening. Spam watchdog Spamcop.net stated that there was a decline of 10 - 40 spam emails per second. At this time, it is not known whether McColo be legally responsible will be for the activities of their clients. At this time there is no confirmation that the company has been charged with a crime. Private security researcher Jart Armin has been documenting the activity of McColo. She mentioned that currently McColo is hosted at a minimum 40 different child pornography websites, or sites that collect payment for the content. A traffic analysis of one of the sites proved that each one of these sites were generating between 15,000 and 25,000 visitors daily. For several months, cyber criminals have been utilizing servers at McColo to manage websites that send out new versions of the “Torpig” or “Sinowal” Trojan horse program that is one of the most stealthy malware programs in existence currently. This is just one more successful move in the government’s quest to go more seriously after spammers. Last month, the FTC seized the assets of Herbal King that was in the business of selling counterfeit prescription drugs. This network was deemed the largest “spam gang” in the world. The spammers utilized the Mega-D botnet, which reportedly was able to send 10 billion e-mail messages per day." Source: TG Daily - Major source of Internet spam pulled off the Web __________________ \| Core2Quad Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz \| ASUS P5B-E Plus \| mixed 3GB @ DDR2-800 CL5 \| Hitachi 160GB SATA2 \| HD4870 1GB OC \| BENQ 20.1" LCD \| \| Pentium-M 740 \| Kingston 1GB + Nanya 256MB \| Seagate 120GB 5.4krpm \| RADEON X700 64MB \| 14" LCD

16th Nov 2008, 02:07 PM	#3 (permalink)
Max_87 h@x! Join Date: 11 Aug 2003 Location: the land of bandwidth cap Posts: 11,424 Reputation: 2090 Rep Power: 37	LOL yay! I'm getting a lot less spam now! __________________ Max_87 Tech ARP http://www.techarp.com Dell Studio 15 / P7350 / 3GB DDR2 / Radeon HD 3450 / 250GB 7200RPM / 15" @ 1920x1200 E8600 @ 4.4GHz 1.36v / Asus P5E3 Deluxe / 2x2GB DDR3 / Radeon X1800 / Barracuda 7200.9 120GB / 7200.10 320GB x2 / Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS / WD6400AAKS x2 / Dell 2007FP x2 / Silverstone ST56F

16th Nov 2008, 02:20 PM	#4 (permalink)
PsYkHoTiK "Little" Devil Join Date: 8 Apr 2004 Location: On the "throne" Posts: 14,564 Reputation: 4300 Rep Power: 63	Yeah I was just telling Chai that I have been getting way less spam (haha was asking him if there was something up LOL). __________________ Intel SLAPL 4.3GHz @ 1.35v : 2x2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066 : Asus P5K Premium : WD RE3 250GB x2 RAID 0 : 3ware 9650SE-2LP : G92 8800GTS 512mb 820MHz Core : XFi Platinum : Silverstone OP650 : Silverstone TJ-07 : Dtek FuZion CPU : Swiftech MCW60 : MCP655 : Thermochill PA120.3 w Scythe Ultra Kaze CPU-Z: SLAPL : SLA9U : FX-55 : DDR 600 : VX www.techarp.com PsYkHoTiK's Meanderings

16th Nov 2008, 03:34 PM	#5 (permalink)
lee_what2004 Super Active Join Date: 28 Dec 2007 Location: Melaka Posts: 1,107 Reputation: 961 Rep Power: 12	no wonder got days with no spam __________________

16th Nov 2008, 03:52 PM	#6 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 27,532 Reputation: 4368 Rep Power: 77	Wow, I just noticed, my spam dropped by at least 75%! __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

16th Nov 2008, 01:40 PM	#2 (permalink)
mikegas I'm a regular Join Date: 7 May 2008 Posts: 442 Reputation: 206 Rep Power: 4	YAY! .. I hate spam

16th Nov 2008, 04:48 PM	#7 (permalink)
PsYkHoTiK "Little" Devil Join Date: 8 Apr 2004 Location: On the "throne" Posts: 14,564 Reputation: 4300 Rep Power: 63	LMAO! At first I thought was the mail server busted? Is there something wrong with my Outlook? Is it in offline mode or something? LOL! __________________ Intel SLAPL 4.3GHz @ 1.35v : 2x2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066 : Asus P5K Premium : WD RE3 250GB x2 RAID 0 : 3ware 9650SE-2LP : G92 8800GTS 512mb 820MHz Core : XFi Platinum : Silverstone OP650 : Silverstone TJ-07 : Dtek FuZion CPU : Swiftech MCW60 : MCP655 : Thermochill PA120.3 w Scythe Ultra Kaze CPU-Z: SLAPL : SLA9U : FX-55 : DDR 600 : VX www.techarp.com PsYkHoTiK's Meanderings

16th Nov 2008, 05:15 PM	#8 (permalink)
ChampionLLY News Writer Join Date: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 1,203 Reputation: 716 Rep Power: 12	i notice i've got less spam mails too.. bust them all! __________________ \| Core2Quad Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz \| ASUS P5B-E Plus \| mixed 3GB @ DDR2-800 CL5 \| Hitachi 160GB SATA2 \| HD4870 1GB OC \| BENQ 20.1" LCD \| \| Pentium-M 740 \| Kingston 1GB + Nanya 256MB \| Seagate 120GB 5.4krpm \| RADEON X700 64MB \| 14" LCD

16th Nov 2008, 06:44 PM	#9 (permalink)
Adrian Wong Da Boss Join Date: 10 Oct 2002 Location: In front of my ASUS F8V notebook! Posts: 31,414 Reputation: 3312 Rep Power: 71	Wow... That is a relief!! I get thousands of spams EVERY DAY! It's insane. __________________ Dr. Adrian Wong Tech ARP \| Blog @ Tech ARP \| The Free Trade Zone DYKT : The only offshore account I have is at the sand bank? We need PROGRAMMERS and TECHNICAL WRITERS! Contact us if you are a hot shot programmer or technical writer! My items for sale : 50x SD Card \| Memory Stick PRO \| Cyclone Energy Saver \| Seiko SS watch \| Tiger/Carlsberg beer jugs \| Travel Speakers \| Motorola V600 \| Nokia N90 SOLD! \| New Lowepro Mini Trekker AW Other items for sale @ the FTZ : Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7700 Cu @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7000 Cu @ $20 \| Swarovski bracelet watches \| Dell 17" LCD \| Hi-Fi speakers \| English DIVX movies \| HP LaserJet toners! \| Office chairs

16th Nov 2008, 07:01 PM	#10 (permalink)
lee_what2004 Super Active Join Date: 28 Dec 2007 Location: Melaka Posts: 1,107 Reputation: 961 Rep Power: 12	I never get more than ten can't imagine thousands of it __________________

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