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FBI Releases Results of Operation Bot Roast
coondoggie writes to tell us that the FBI has released the findings of their recent botnet study and have identified over 1 million botnet crime victims. "The FBI is working with industry partners, including the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University, to notify the victim owners of the computers. Microsoft and the Botnet Task Force have also helped out the FBI. Through this process the FBI may uncover additional incidents in which botnets have been used to facilitate other criminal activity, the FBI said in a statement.Bots are widely recognized as one of the top scourges of the industry. Gartner predicts that by year-end 75% of enterprises 'will be infected with undetected, financially motivated, targeted malware that evaded traditional perimeter and host defenses.'"
and go straight to the source
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel07/botnet0613
It wouldn't get too far in our mail system. We don't accept mail with From addresses in fbi.gov or irs.gov unless they originate on those agencies own servers. Mail coming from a server in rr.com claiming to be "From: fixyourcomputer@fbi.gov" is going to be dropped on the floor.
There have already been tons of viral messages from these two domains over the past few years. One of the big Windows worms ("Slammer," if I recall correctly) was often mailed out with an fbi.gov From address. Forging irs.gov messages is common among phishers.