Generally, a compromised machine is only one of many in a “botnet”, and will be used to perform malicious tasks of one sort or another under remote direction….¬† Because the vector tends to be unconscious, these computers are metaphorically compared to a zombie.Infected zombie computers ‚Äî predominantly Windows PCs ‚Äî are now the major delivery method of spam.Zombies have been used extensively to send e-mail spam; as of 2005, an estimated 50‚Äì80% of all spam worldwide was sent by zombie computers.[1] This allows spammers to avoid detection and presumably reduces their bandwidth costs, since the owners of zombies pay for their own bandwidth.The most effective technical countermeasures to date against this spam barrage has been effective filters that can automatically detect 99% of spam with almost no false positives.
…I realize some might say that I‚Äôm creating another type of spam by reporting all this, but it does seem to have reduced the amount of spam I‚Äôm receiving.As the Wikipedia article states, most users are unaware that their PC is being used as a zombie….¬† Perhaps there could even be some custom free tools that would make clean-up of zombie machines easier.Wouldn‚Äôt it seem more effective eliminate up to 80% of the email spam by identifying, eliminating, or blocking the zombie computers that are being used for spam?
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