A once-dead botnet has been resurrected and resumed its spamming ways.
The original Kelihos botnet compromised only about 41,000 computers but was capable of sending 3.8 billion spam emails each day promoting unregulated pharmaceuticals, fraudulent stock scams and, in some cases, sites dealing with sexual exploitation of children. Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab took down the malware last September using a 'sinkhole' technique that tricked the infected computers into getting their instructions from a computer the companies controlled.
However, while the technique was effective at disabling the botnet quickly, it was merely a temporary fix as many computers remained infected, and "as this particular case showed, it is not very effective if the botnet's masters are still at large," Kaspersky Lab's Maria Garnaeva said in a blog post. "Our investigation revealed that the new version appeared as early as September 28, right after Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab announced the neutralization of the original Hlux/Kelihos botnet."
For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Kelihos botnet makes a comeback on CNET News.
