Stony Stevenson writes to mention that some security researchers are claiming
that the Storm Worm has grown so massive that it could rival
the world's top supercomputers in terms of raw power. "Sergeant said
researchers at MessageLabs see about 2 million different computers in the botnet
sending out spam on any given day, and he adds that he estimates the botnet
generally is operating at about 10 percent of capacity. 'We've seen spikes where
the owner is experimenting with something and those spikes are usually five to
10 times what we normally see,' he said, noting he suspects the botnet could be
as large as 50 million computers. 'That means they can turn on the taps whenever
they want to.'"