GIANT SPAMBOT FOUND WITH 711 MILLION EMAIL ADDRESSES...

Internet security researchers have found what they believe is the biggest list of email addresses and passwords used to deliver spam and malware to victims around the world.

The scale of the scheme appears to make it the biggest find of its kind. A record 711 million emails and passwords and the addresses - and in some cases associated passwords - have apparently been gathered to help spread banking malware.

It has been found on a "spambot" server in the Netherlands, the server nicknamed Onliner with an IP address that helped a self-descrived French "malware hunter" and blogger Benkow find the "spambot". 

Benkow said in a blog post that the spambot has been used since 2016 to spread banking malware called Ursnif. It's designed to steal personal information and information about a user's computer and send it to the spambot's owner.

Benkow told ZDNet that Onliner has generated more than 100,000 malware infections around the world. The best advice that Benkow can give is that people should change their passwords and be more vigilant with the emails that they receive.