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Has Mass-Mailed Malware Peaked?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-a-huge-percentage-of-my-inbox dept.

Ant writes "Broadband Reports posted a CRN article about researcher saying mass-mailed worms have reached their peak. Six years ago, on March 26, 1999, Melissa, the first virus that spread by mailing copies of itself to e-mail addresses it found on infected machines, swept the Internet. Today, the researcher who led authorities to the hacker who wrote Melissa, says that mass-mailed worms have reached their peak."

5 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Re:peaked.. by Night+Goat · · Score: 2, Informative

    From the article:
    "The good news now," he said, "is that what Melissa ushered in is finally waning. Mass-mailed worms and viruses reached their peak last year."
    It has peaked because the numbers are declining, from their peak last year. RTFA.

  2. Peaked LAST YEAR by hugesmile · · Score: 3, Informative
    From the sensationalized Slashdot blurb: Today, the researcher who led authorities to the hacker who wrote Melissa, says that mass-mailed worms have reached their peak."

    From TFA: "The good news now," he said, "is that what Melissa ushered in is finally waning. Mass-mailed worms and viruses reached their peak last year."

    I think the blurb is a little misleading. The blurb should have said that the peak was last year and we are on the decline.

  3. ot: Tasmanian Wolf, not devil, is extinct. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Tasmanian Devil is endangered, but not anywhere near extinct. The "practically extinct" animal you are thinking of is likely the Tasmanian Wolf, also called the Tasmanian Tiger. This animal, however, is much less remembered, due to its extinction(?) and the fact that there is no Warner Brothers cartoon character to make it so everyone thinks it is so cool.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  4. Yes but, by Tribbin · · Score: 3, Informative

    On a graph that is increasingly climbing, today is always the peak.

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    If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
  5. Lots of things help. by davburns · · Score: 3, Informative
    It's more than not running executables from email (Although that certainly helps!) In the last year or so:
    • Network operators have blocked outbound port 25 for large chuncks of the net -- protecting the net from their infectable, directly networked machines.
    • Mail admins have installed virus filters on most legitimate MTAs that touch the internet.
    • End users have figured out that they really do need virus protection. Even if they "just" use their computer for browsing and email.
    • Microsoft got lots of their users on Windowsupdate.
    • Legislators have passed some laws. Eg, making it a felony to use zombies for sending spam. (The virus writters might be hard to catch, but the spammers that buy/rent zombies are much easier, and they are the source of the money.)
    All of these help a little bit, and there's a network effect with some of them. For example, mail admins a year ago had trouble installing virus filters because there were so many viruses loading down their servers. Now with other mailservers dropping the viruses quicker, it's easier to add the filters. There's also a network effect for the virus/worm writers. If its harder for them to get new zombies (and many of the zombies can't be used for spam), there's less profit motive to write the viruses to get the zombies.