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Re: [News] Estimated Number of Windows Zombies: up to 47 Million

  • Subject: Re: [News] Estimated Number of Windows Zombies: up to 47 Million
  • From: "DFS" <nospam@xxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 19:22:22 -0400
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: BellSouth Internet Group
  • References: <1281916.xpyD1k5g01@schestowitz.com> <1145889998.47839.0@despina.uk.clara.net> <1929632.Vllg1B9IZl@schestowitz.com> <Ot63g.8416$t61.6813@bignews6.bellsouth.net> <444E9A02.6060100@bullet3.fsnet.oc.ku>
  • Xref: news.mcc.ac.uk comp.os.linux.advocacy:1103934
Robert Newson wrote:
> DFS wrote:
>
> ...
>>> What you neglected to list among your point is the fact that 80% of
>>> the world's spam is despatched from hijacked Windows computers.
>>
>> Liar.
>
> Ok, let's see what the spam I've received says...out of the last 33
> spam that I've received, 32 of them originated from Microsoft powered
> computers, or in percentage terms, that almost 97%.
>
> Going back to my 2003 archive, on a quick, rough perusal, I find:
>
>   8625 spam in archive[1]
>   6976 have a definite identified mailer
>   5915 definitely identified as coming from MS powered computers[2]
>   or 85% of those defintely identified as MS computer originated.
>
> [1] I am more than happy to send you a copy of all 8625 of them if
> you want to do your own anaylsis of the data /BEFORE/ you call me a
> liar.
>
> [2] These are identified as:
>        4192 - Branded as Microsoft mailers
>         907 - Mailers branded for Windows
>           1 - Specific WinNT
>           3 - Specific Win98
>         103 - Pegasus for Win32
>         383 - The Bat! [Only available for Windwos from what I can
>         see] 324 - Internet Mail Service [Part of Microsoft Exchange
>           Server] 2 - [unbranded] OutLook Express
>        ----
>        5915 - Total identified as MS powered computer originated.
>
> There were 112 which messed up the mailer identity, so it's a fairly
> good bet that they wrere MS powered machines, plus there were 1537
> which gave no identifier.
>
> So the 80% figure is probably fairly accurate.
>
> For 2004 I have 28,829 spam in my archive...that'll require more than
> a quick perusal.
>
> For 2005 I have 21,930 spam in the archive.  I stopped collecting at
> the beginning of this year from my spammed eaddr (it filled up with
> 1001 messages in about 15 days), but now have spam arriving on my new
> eaddr (which is the 33 mentioned above).

Nice analysis.  Unfortunately - for you - not a word of it supports that the
spam came from a hijacked Windows zombie machine.



> What proof, DFS, do /*YOU*/ have that it is /*NOT*/ 80% so that you
> are correct in your assertion that Roy is a liar?

I have no *proof*.  No one can have proof of such a nebulous thing.
Therefore I probably shouldn't have called Roy a liar, and I apologize to
him.  But at a minimum he's guilty of his typical "advocacy" because he
stated that number without qualifying it as an estimate, and noting it's
based on a 2-year old article.  That's what he does when talking about
Windows: misleads and misquotes.

Heck, maybe zombie spam still is at 80% of all spam - no one knows - but:

* in the interim since the article he quotes, XP Service Pack 2 has been
released and Windows security is much improved
* many ISPs have focused on spam and targeted zombie machines and cut them
off
* no current research I can find supports that 80% figure

I really shouldn't let it bother me; MS is not responsible for securing
Windows any more than Ford is responsible for securing my automobile.




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