Today it's been announced that a major source of spam and malicious e-mails has gone 'offline' (i.e. ceased to distribute e-mails).

It's very unlikley you've ever heard of ​Necurs which is an organisation that distributes millions of dangerous spam e-mails for various criminals trying to fool users into opening attachments or clicking links in e-mails that lead to problems with their computers.  But apparently, it's stopped...

You may have heard of the expression 'botnet' which usually means a large number of internet-connected computers, that although their owners are unaware of it, have been set up to forward spam and viruses to others.  Botnets are sometimes called 'zombie armies'. 

It is estimated that worldwide around 6 million Windows computers are infected and act as distributors in botnets - a scary fact.  Often people have no way of knowing whether their computer has been 'taken over', but this is often because they've been tricked into clikcing links or opening e-mail attachments themselves.

If you think your computer has slowed down or started behaving strangely, it may be time to have a complete overhaul (System Check and Update Service) from Highway to ensure nothing is amiss with it.

So, until the criminals create new botnets or other ways of spreading infection (almost guarnteed they will!), maybe the internet is a slightly safer place today?