Cedric PERNET - Threat Intel, APT & Cybercrime

Message Labs just published its Intelligence Report for August 2009.

As usual, it is a very interesting paper that I recommend you to read if you're concerned with spam/botnet/malware issues.

This report is especially interesting because it shows us the consequence (in terms of botnet activity) of the takedown of "Real Host", a bulletproof hosting company located in Latvia. This reminds me of something...

The Cutwail botnet for example showed a fall of 90% of its activity in the hours following the takedown.

What we can also notice is an increase of the use of short-urls in spam (mainly by the Donbot botnet).