Huge spam botnet shutdown

Grum botnet has been clamped down after long-running spam operations

July 20, 2012

A spam botnet which is believed to have sent out 18% of the world’s spam email has been shut down.

Known as the Grum botnet, the network was tracked to servers located in Panama, Russia and Ukraine.

Security company FishEye and spam-tracking service SpamHaus worked with local internet service providers to close the illegal network.

“Grum’s takedown resulted from the efforts of many individuals,” said Atif Mushtaq, a security researcher with FireEye.

“This collaboration is sending a strong message to all the spammers: Stop sending us spam. We don’t need your cheap Viagra or fake Rolex.”

Forum DebateHuge spam botnet shutdown << Click for more

Join the conversation

Communications minister Dina Pule plans to create more transparency on pricing of services such as SMS, voice, and data

The SABC will repay its government guaranteed loan of R1 billion in full within the next few months

Vodacom continues its rapid broadband subscriber number growth by adding over a million new users in the last year

A group of ex-Nokia software developers unveiled its first smartphone, running on the MeeGo-based Sailfish OS and supporting Android applications