Spam & Sobig: arm in arm
Joe Stewart · Network Security · 2003
This is the sordid tale of how a lone computer virus opened the door for millions of spam emails every day worldwide. In order for the reader to understand how this happened, this article will explain some concepts in spam, viruses and backdoors. Viruses sometimes leave backdoors, also known as “trojans,” on systems they infect; this is nothing new. The idea is to give the virus writer control over a large quantity of infected computers, establishing a virtual army of computers to do his or her bidding.