CipherTrust have created the ZombieMeter - a new online resource that tracks worldwide zombie activity in real-time. The software, which aims to identify the latest messaging security threats and to protect the messaging systems of more than 1,500 enterprise customers worldwide, is available from the company's website.
The scale of the zombie problem seems to be increasing rapidly, and is of major concern now. CipherTrust surveys estimated that some 50,000 PCs a month are being recruited into zombie armies, or botnets. Even in the month of May, CipherTrust researchers found an average of 172,009 new zombies identified each day.
Throughout the month of May, CipherTrust researchers found an average of 172,009 new zombies identified each day. Approximately 20 percent of the new zombies originated in the United States and 15 percent originated in China, representing a slight shift from research conducted during late March and early April which identified that approximately 20 percent of the 157,000 new zombies at that time originated in China. The origin of the zombie machines may change on a daily basis as machines can be infected anywhere in the world. CipherTrust has found that over the past three months, the largest percent of zombie originations have altered between China and the United States. In addition, during the first three weeks of May, approximately 26 percent of daily new zombies originated in the European Union, including six percent, five percent and three percent of new zombies originated in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, respectively.