Only 50 ISPs host majority of world's spam
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 19 November 2010, 12:33 IST   |    3 Comments
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Bangalore: In a fresh finding that could provide new ways of combating botnets, it is revealed that only 50 Internet service providers (ISPs) host the majority of the world's spam. According to a new study by researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and Michigan State University conducted for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reveals that 60 percent of all infected computer systems in the world are installed on the networks of 200 ISPs. The researchers looked at 109 billion spam messages from 170 million unique IP addresses taken from a spam trap in 2005-2009. It covered about 40 countries, including the EU countries, Russia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. According to the study, where there's spam, you'll find an infected - aka zombie - machine because, on average 80 percent to 90 percent of the world's spam comes from infected machines. The researchers claimed that they discovered that infected machines display a highly concentrated pattern and the networks of just 50 ISPs account for around half of all infected machines worldwide. The results suggest a new way to block botnets by improving the security practices of the 50 ISPs that host half the world's spam.

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