Spam Levels Low But About to Increase

[GhostShip]

A week or so ago a ISP was disconnected from the net and spam dropped to a very small level, with the discovery that the botnet could be activated from elsewhere the rate of global spam is expected to once again soar.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7749835.stm

In the world of spam, what goes down must come up.

Two weeks after the shutdown of web hosting firm McColo, which saw a two-thirds drop in spam worldwide, spam numbers are creeping up again. Industry experts disagree on the degree to which spam has returned, but most say that prior levels will soon be reached.
Some 450,000 infected computers have been spotted trying to connect to the largest of the networks McColo hosted.

McColo served as host to a number of "command and control" centres for botnets, networks of infected computers called bots that send spam and engage in other malicious activities.
With the shutdown of McColo, these botnets have been left without a centralised command, and the botnets' owners will be on the hunt for new hosts and bandwidth.

Lets hope the next ISP that this particular botnet ends up on is more amicable when it comes to shutting the whole network down and perhaps works with the authorities to deliver a software update on the compromised machines to halt their ever being used again by those who constucted this spam-net.

[White Stripes]

Some 450,000 infected computers have been spotted trying to connect to the largest of the networks McColo hosted.

could the software that was trying to connect not have been used as the method to install the fix?
seems in the article they are missing some opportunities to shut the botnet down....

[Trestor]

Does it mean that McColo was the favored ISP for a large number of spammers, or that most spam is produced by one spammer? If it's the first, it seems odd to me that so many spammers would seek out one ISP to the exclusion of others. Any thoughts?