The Battle For The Bots
Since the arrest of the so-called "Spam King," Robert Soloway, authorities and other spammers have been in a battle for his bots. Soloway allegedly controlled a huge botnet of zombies that he used to send his spam.
Researchers say Soloway had his own botnet for spamming -- not for launching denial-of-service attacks like some botnets do, nor was it part of one of the infamous botnet "gangs" out there. And everyone was watching him and his movements. "The botnet wasn't terribly sophisticated, but it was custom enough that it sort of stood out," says Jose Nazario, software and security engineer for Arbor Networks. "It seemed to be primarily his own botnet, and he [probably] had a couple of guys in contract helping him out. People had their eye on him for quite a while."
Even if authorities try to shut down his botnet, there are plenty more wanna-be spam kings and botherders waiting in the wings who probably already are snapping up the infected bots Soloway used, researchers say. "There's always someone there ready to fill the void," says Joe Stewart, senior security researcher for SecureWorks. "I don't expect to see a decrease of spam in my inbox."
[Dismantling a Botnet]
