Users 1 - Spammers 0

In a recent victory for the net user, a US Federal Court judge ordered the takedown of nearly 300 domains this week.

These domains were being used to control malware infected computers, under the Waledac botnet which accounted for more than 650 million spam emails a month.

Microsoft filed the lawsuit after the botnet, which appeared toward the end of 2008, infected hundreds of thousands of computers, and sent millions of spam emails to Hotmail accounts.

The judges action now allows researchers the opportunity to cloesly study the botnet activity at the domain level.

Effectively all communication from the botnet has been terminated.

In an article from SC Magazine, the sheer scale of spam was reported:

"At its peak, the impact of Waledac was stunning. Microsoft found that between Dec. 3 and 21, more than 650 million spam messages directed to Hotmail accounts were attributable to the botnet.

And researchers at security firm ESET reported last summer that PCs infected with Waledac were capable of sending 6,548 spam emails per hour, or two emails per second. The company found that if, for example, 20,000 computers were infected with Waledac, then the botnet was capable of sending three billion emails per day, if all infected computers were working to full capacity."

With figures like that, most users should see a reduction in the amount of spam hitting their inboxes.

Lets hope that after years of misery and inaction, finally the tide will turn against the spam community.