McAfee Report: Bot Infections Jump 50 Percent Over Last Year - DarkReading

McAfee Report: Bot Infections Jump 50 Percent Over Last Year - DarkReading: "The number of bot-infected machines has jumped nearly 50 percent over last year, with the U.S. now home to the most zombies in the world, according to a new McAfee report released today.

And the Conficker worm -- which grabbed mainstream media attention last month -- is not a major factor in the bot infection counts nor overall infections, with Conficker infections accounting for only about one percent of all virus detections in the first quarter of this year, according to David Marcus, director of security research for McAfee.

McAfee Avert Labs found 12 million new IP addresses performing bot operations in the first quarter, according to the report, but spam activity still has not caught up to its level prior to the McColo takedown last November. 'The activity level of new zombies indicates that the spammers are working hard to regain the infrastructure lost and that volumes will return to previous levels sometime soon,' the report says.

The U.S. has 18 percent of all bot-infected machines, up from 15.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, surpassing China, which now has 13.4 percent, down from 15.8 percent in Q4 '08. A new hotspot for zombies is Australia, which now has 6 percent of all bots, up from 4 percent in the fourth quarter, and below 2 percent"