Spam server shutdown has little effect

The shutdown of the Pricewert internet service provider (ISP) looks unlikely to have the same crushing effect of spam as the McColo closure last year.

Security companies are reporting some drop in spam levels and botnet activity but they are quickly recovering. Overall spam and botnet activity is now approaching the levels present before yesterday's shutdown. “So far our guys haven't seen anything different,” Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos told vnunet.com.

“McColo was the last of the dinosaurs. Now a multi-headed hydra; it's getting much harder to knock out the botnets.”