Neowin.net - Attack of Comcast's Internet zombies

Attack of Comcast's Internet zombies

Posted by malebolgia on 25 May 2004 - 02:22 · 28 comments & 1534 views

Comcast's high-speed Internet subscribers have long been rumored to be an unusually persistent source of junk e-mail.

Now someone from Comcast is confirming it. "We're the biggest spammer on the Internet," network engineer Sean Lutner said at a meeting of an antispam working group in Washington, D.C., last week. Lutner said Comcast users send out about 800 million messages a day, but a mere 100 million flow through the company's official servers. Almost all of the remaining 700 million represent spam erupting from so-called zombie computers--a breathtaking figure that adds up to six or seven spam-o-grams for each American family every day.

Zombie computers arise when spammers seize on bugs in Microsoft Windows--or from naive users who click on attachments--to take over PCs and transform them into spambots. No hard numbers exist, but some estimates say that about one-third of spam comes from zombie computers with broadband connections. The owners of the zombie PCs typically don't even notice what's happening. Because home computers are more likely to be infected than business PCs, and because Comcast has about 6 million high-speed customers, it may have been inevitable that the cable provider became a haven for remote-controlled zombies that churn out junk e-mail.

News source: C|Net News.com

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#1 Posted by Mav Phoenix on 25 May 2004 - 03:18: Damn, lol that's a lot of canned meat!

(2 replies) #2 Posted by viserov on 25 May 2004 - 03:44: Maybe they should do what Cox does... force you to use their SMTP servers?

#3 Posted by incubusdaemon on 25 May 2004 - 03:51: there is a very good discussion of the issue on slashdot right now

#4 Posted by DsnBehind on 25 May 2004 - 04:09: Oh we're not spammers. Only the dumbasses.

#5 Posted by FuhrerDarqueSyde on 25 May 2004 - 04:09: though it may be a 'privacy concern' perhaps they should check for smtp headers in packets and block them. So they cant change the ports and webmail will still work(allow smtp if sent to their servers).

#6 Posted by qoa on 25 May 2004 - 06:44: Maybe that's the reason my connection is dog crap slow. After the "upgrade to service" I actually started getting less bandwidth than I had before.

(2 replies) #7 Posted by MoRiA on 25 May 2004 - 07:03: They should give you an option somewhere:
"Are you running a personal mail server?"
If you answer yes then port 25 is unblocked, if you answer no then port 25 is blocked to all but their own SMTP servers.

If all ISPs implemented a system like this then these zombie machines would be useless...

Here's to hoping XP SP2 will sort a few home users out with things like this...

(2 replies) #8 Posted by beardedwonder on 25 May 2004 - 10:05: Now if there were less stupid people that didn't open up unknown attachments....

#9 Posted by garymill234 on 25 May 2004 - 13:16: I myself use comcast, and though their service is expensive, they now offer better than 3mb per second connections.

#10 Posted by IGx89 on 25 May 2004 - 13:31: lol, this is funny: Comcast outlaws running "servers" on any of their connections, yet a large percentage of their users are doing just that, albeit not purposely .

(1 reply) #11 Posted by dougkinzinger on 25 May 2004 - 13:47: For the last two months, I have gotten about 750-900 spam messages a day sent to the Undeliverable admin inbox at a client. Checking the logs indicates that about 80% of them are from ComCast.

Here I thought I was the only one....

(3 replies) #12 Posted by Gary_Player on 25 May 2004 - 15:32: You have to take tests before you can get into schools or get government jobs, they should add a test before you can breed and a test before you can own a computer...otherwise the computer pwns you

#13 Posted by neomilan on 25 May 2004 - 19:33: that pic of spam makes me hungry

#14 Posted by dotRoot on 25 May 2004 - 23:00: Its been pretty well known that ComCast has been an "Infected Host". At least that's the case in some of the big channels I've admined for on IRC. Also ComCast's bandwidth sucks from what I wouldn't put it passed them lying about it and that "3 mb/s" is shared between a couple local connections. Also ComCast is also known for trojan/port scanning and open wingates/proxies. I'd never use them, they don't even seem to a gateway server set up to monitor suspicious things such as these.

(3 replies) #15 Posted by Bwizzel-B on 26 May 2004 - 00:11: Non business DSL and cable accounts have no business running mail servers or connecting to nonencrypted, non provider SMTP servers (IE most people that have access to work mail servers from home use VPN connections).
I say, force them all to connect only to their providers SMTP server. Screw the 2% who feel they have the right to do whatever they want- here's a news tip- you don't. You'll get whatever your ISP says you can have access to through *their* network, and that's it.
I always laugh my butt off when I see people comment like "I have the right to do this with my Net connection, or that, or.....". STFU already. You have no rights, you have privileges, privileges that can be taken away any time your provider chooses to do so.
ISP's have always had the full legal authority to do whatever they deem necessary to prevent crap like this, and now it's time for ALL ISP's to step up to the plate and take responsibility for the traffic coming over the wire from their networks.
Comcast should be counting their lucky stars that nobody is suing them over someone admitting that they knew about it and did nothing.

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