Cyber criminals control 12 mn IP addresses

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cyber criminals have taken control of as many as 12 million new IP addresses since the start of 2009, a 50 per cent increase since 2008, according to the latest quarterly threat report from security technology company McAfee, Inc.

The United States is now home to the largest percentage of botnet-infected computers, hosting 18 per cent of all zombie machines, it said in a press release. Cybercriminals are building an army of infected, 'zombie' computers to recover from last November’s takedown of a central spam-hosting ISP, according to the new report from McAfee Avert Labs.

“The massive expansion of these botnets provides cybercriminals with the infrastructure they need to flood the Web with malware,” said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs. “Essentially, this is cybercrime enablement.”

However, the number of spams came down partly due to the November 2008 takedown of McColo Corp, said McAfee. Compared with the same quarter a year ago, spam volumes are 20 per cent lower in 2009 and 30 per cent below the third quarter of 2008, which had the highest quarterly volumes recorded to date.

But, it warned that spam quantities are expected to rise again.

Another significant finding in the report is the resurgence of the Koobface virus. The report said more than 800 new variants of the virus were discovered in March alone

Also cybercriminals are increasing their use of URL redirects and Web 2.0 sites to disguise their location, it said.