Microsoft and Security Community Shut Down Spam King 'Rustock' Botnet

Rustock, a network of botnet creators responsible for sending billions of spammed messages a day has been shut down.

This major coup was executed by Microsoft with the cooperation of U.S. marshals. After years of endangering so many computers, Rustock's email system and command-and-control servers disintegrated last week. Initially it was unclear whether or not the remission was due to security reasons or reorganization within Rustock.

Botnets are technically a group of compromised computers put under the control of a remote host. The remove host usually sends a set of instructions to the compromised computers which are essentially under the mercy of a hacker. The hacker basically has the group of computers in the botnet under his control sending instructions to perform various actions over the internet or network.

Rustock was one of the bigger botnets around the world composed of large numbers of PCs under the control of a hacker. The Rustock botnet computers were instructed to send literally billions of spam messages over the course of the past few years. Since then, Rustock has been shut down which in return has greatly reduced the amount of spam messages circulating over the internet by as much as a third.

The seized servers were in control of almost a million Windows computers. The criminals behind Rustock remain unnamed, being referred to in the court orders as "John Does 1-11."

Though Rustock was believed to be one of the world’s largest spam providers, Microsoft is confident that the recent shut down was a success.