Microsoft takes on spam zombies
By Adam Griffith, in Web Design, Web Development
Microsoft has identified 13 different spamming operations that use such "zombies," it said Thursday. A lawsuit was filed against unnamed defendants in August. Since then Microsoft has tracked down some of the people behind the operations, said Tim Cranton, director of Internet Safety Enforcement Programs at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash.
"We have identified a number of entities in North America that we feel the evidence will show are liable and culpable for the spamming that occurred," Cranton said. Microsoft has taken spammers to court before for using deceptive subject lines or fake "from" addresses. The company is now expanding its spam fight to include criminals who hijack PCs to send unwanted e-mail.
"We are moving upstream and looking at the source of the spam problem, and it is obviously the zombies," Cranton said.
A zombie is a computer (typically connected to the Internet via a broadband connection and without security software to protect it) that has been infected by a Trojan horse or other malicious code and is used remotely to send spam, mount denial-of-service attacks, or other online crimes. A network of zombies is referred to as a "botnet."