San Francisco - The volume of spam messages on the internet
plunged by about two thirds this week after the connection was cut on
a company that was allegedly using its servers to disseminate
billions of the unwanted email messages, internet security firms said
Friday.
Symantec said the number of spam messages had fallen by some 120
billion per day, to around 60 billion. However it warned that many of
the spam spewers would probably find new routes to distribute their
messages and that the respite was likely only temporary.
Nevertheless the success was greeted as a sign of the validity of
the new anti-spam approach that traced the messages back to a Silicon
Valley company called McColo, which rents out servers to clients.
After researchers identified the company they also contacted its two
major internet access providers, Hurricane Electric and Global
Crossing, which promptly cut its internet connection.
The report identifying McColo was published anonymously by the ad-
hoc team of researchers who said that among other things, McColo
reportedly enabled its customers to control vast networks of hijacked
computers to send spam and take payments for fake anti-virus
software. McColo at one time hosted up to 40 Web sites with child
pornography, the report said.
'We got the report, and it looked pretty damning,' said Benny Ng,
director of infrastructure at Hurricane Electric, of Fremont,
California. 'They were a client of ours, and we turned them off.'
USA
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