50 ISPs harbor half of all infected machines worldwide:

A group of researchers from the Delft University of Technology and Michigan State University have recently released an analysis of the role that ISPs could play in botnet mitigation.

[An] interesting result of this analysis is that ISPs of similar size located in the same country can have drastically different infection rates among its users, leading the researchers to conclude that some ISPs have adopted more effective practices against infection than others.

"The networks of just 50 ISPs account for around half of all infected machines worldwide," say the researchers. "This is remarkable, in light of the tens of thousands of entities that can be attributed to the class of ISPs. The bulk of the infected machines are not located in the networks of obscure or rogue ISPs, but in those of established, well-known ISPs."

That means that persuading just these 50 ISPs to begin implementing new, more efficient approaches for preventing and eradicating the infection could make a big dent into the botnet market. [Date:
16 November 2010; Source: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1531]