Spam Dropped Last Week. Are You A Victim?
You may or may not have heard the news last week, but spam traffic dropped by 50 to 70 percent last week after two Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cut off Internet access for hosting company McColo in California last week.
If you’re not familiar with these terms, a hosting company provides computer service and equipment for other companies and individuals. A hosting company typically offers storage service for email and web sites. An ISP provides companies and individuals with access to the Internet.
In last week’s case, McColo, a hosting company with locations in Delaware and California, was providing hosting services to several companies and individuals who used the McColo’s computers to distribute viruses and spyware via spam and harmful web sites. Many of the sites and messages dealt in pharmaceutical drug sales and child pornography. These companies were paying McColo for the use of their computers, and despite the illegal activity McColo ignored it.
McColo’s host computer center in San Jose, CA was connected to the Internet via several Internet Service Providers. Two of the providers took it upon themselves to deprive McColo of Internet access and shutdown the Internet connection. Within seconds the level of spam traffic worldwide dropped by 50% to 75% according to several spam watchdog services such as Spamhaus.
Consumer Risks: “XP AntiVirus Protection” and “AntiVirus 2009″
If you downloaded either of these two programs then you can probably count yourself among the victims of this incident. “XP AntiVirus Protection” and “AntiVirus 2009″ were fraudulent programs distributed by several companies and individuals who were provided hosting services by McColo.
 AntiVirus 2009 |
 XP AntiVirus |
Help Yourself, Help Your Computer
If you downloaded either of these programs you should remove them immediately. To do so:
- Click Start > Conrol Panel
- Click or double-click “Add/Remove Programs”
- Locate and click each of these programs on the list and click “Remove”
After removing these programs, go to http://pack.google.com and download, install, and run “PC Tools Spyware Doctor” and “Norton Security Scan” to remove any traces of these programs and the harmful software they may have added to your computer. Users of Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware 2008 software may want to run an additional scan of their system for through cleaning. You may need to scan your system three times to fully clean out these programs.
Post Comments or Questions with the link below. Keep up-to-date with Skylarking: By Email or RSS Newsfeed or on Twitter. You can also send questions with my email form.
Subscribe to the comments for this post
