Spam speculation
Experts have warned a dip in the number of junk emails sent out across the world might not last long as the botnet responsible for a lot of spam has been resurrected.
Security firm Symantec Hosted Services said the volume of spam had dropped hugely in December and detected 50bn spam messages being sent each day in December, compared with 200bn sent daily in August the BBC reported.
Paul Wood, a senior analyst at the firm reportedly said 3 of the largest spam producers, including botnet Rustock which is believed to be responsible for almost half of the world's spam, stopped sending junk mail around Christmas but it is not known why.
He said Rustock was responsible for just 0.5 percent of global spam in December, indicating it was still working but its owners were choosing not to send spam.
However, the Beeb has reported that Rustock has come back to life and is churning out annoying junk mail again from 10 January, according to another security firm, NetWitness.
Alex Cox of NetWitness reportedly said it does not seem that Rustock's controllers have made any huge strategic changes to their spamming habits
"As best we can tell, they took a holiday. The people running Rustock are running a business - albeit an illegitimate one- so maybe they needed time off too," he reportedly added.
According to Auntie, Symantec has also noticed Rustock's resurrection, which it said is currently spewing out a quarter of the world's spam.
Wood reportedly said that Rustock sent out 67bn junk emails on 10 January alone. However, he disagrees with the holiday theory as explaining the lull in spamming activity over Christmas. He is believed to think that the botnet owners rented Rustock out to new spammers.
"Previously Rustock was primarily sending out spam related to a group known as the Canadian Pharmacy. The spam we're seeing today is for Pharmacy Express. Besides, a lot of automation exists in the spamming business. They don't need people sat at keyboard to send in out," he reportedly said.
