Lethic botnet
Encyclopedia
The Lethic Botnet is a botnet
consisting of an estimated 210 000 - 310 000 individual machines which are mainly involved in pharmaceutical and replica spam. . At the peak of its existence the botnet was responsible for 8-10% of all the spam
sent worldwide.
employees, who contacted various Lethic internet service providers in a bid to take control of the botnet's command and control servers. . This move temporarily caused the botnets' spam to decrease to a trickle of its original volume .
In February 2010 the owners of the botnet managed to re-establish control over the botnet, through the use of new command and control servers located in the United States
. The takedown has decreased the spam volume of the botnet, however. As of February 2010 the botnets' amount of spam was down to a third of its original . As of April 2010 the botnet has an estimated 1.5% share of the spam market, sending about 2 billion spam messages a day.
Botnet
A botnet is a collection of compromised computers connected to the Internet. Termed "bots," they are generally used for malicious purposes. When a computer becomes compromised, it becomes a part of a botnet...
consisting of an estimated 210 000 - 310 000 individual machines which are mainly involved in pharmaceutical and replica spam. . At the peak of its existence the botnet was responsible for 8-10% of all the spam
E-mail spam
Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email , is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email. Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. One subset of UBE is UCE...
sent worldwide.
Dismantling and revival
Around early January 2010 the botnet was dismantled by NeustarNeuStar
Neustar, Inc. is a provider of clearinghouse and directory services to the global communications and Internet industries.-History:Neustar was incorporated in Delaware in 1998. It started as a business unit within Lockheed Martin Corporation...
employees, who contacted various Lethic internet service providers in a bid to take control of the botnet's command and control servers. . This move temporarily caused the botnets' spam to decrease to a trickle of its original volume .
In February 2010 the owners of the botnet managed to re-establish control over the botnet, through the use of new command and control servers located in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The takedown has decreased the spam volume of the botnet, however. As of February 2010 the botnets' amount of spam was down to a third of its original . As of April 2010 the botnet has an estimated 1.5% share of the spam market, sending about 2 billion spam messages a day.