Festi Botnet Emergence: Impact On Spam Trends And Naming Conventions

There is a new kid in town in the world of botnets - isn't there always? A heavyweight spamming botnet known as Festi has only been tracked by researchers with Message Labs Intelligence since August, but is already responsible for approximately 5 percent of all global spam (around 2.5 billion spam emails per day), according to Paul Wood, senior analyst with Messagelabs, which keeps tabs on spam and botnet activity.

When a botnet like Festi pops onto the radar screen of security researchers, it not only poses the question of what is it doing and how much damage it can cause; there is also the issue of what to call it. For all of their prevalence and power online, when it comes to naming botnets, there is no real system in place.

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