Is your corporate network breeding spambots?

Briefly mentioned elsewhere, but worth mentioning here as well: Support Intelligence of San Francisco, is running a project known as "30 Days of Bots" with the intent of naming and shaming major companies which are allowing spambots to run unchecked from within their networks.

Among the companies named: 3M (pump-n-dump spams), Oracle (phishing attack on PayPal), HP, Best Buy (thousands of spams per week), ExxonMobile, American Electric Power, Indymac Bank, Dow Jones (penis pills), Thomson Financial (pump-n-dump), AIG (fake Rolexes, porn, drugs), Aflac (penis pills), Business Week (penis pills), Toshiba (pump-n-dump, fake Rolexes), Conseco (porn, penis pills, warez), Bank of America (warez), Clear Channel (drugs, warez, phishing), Borders (drugs), Home Depot (drugs), and Affiliated Computer Services (warez, drugs, pump-n-dump). Expect more reports in the future; monitor their blog for updates.

Now here's the scary part: Networks that have spam-spewing zombies could just as easily have keystroke loggers or other spyware. Bank of America recently acquired the company that manages my credit cards. Believe me, this does not instill confidence in the safety of my credit account with them. Do you do business with any of the above companies (or any of dozens that Support Intelligence hasn't reported yet)? Better start checking your credit card receipts.

More references: Slashdot, The Register, New York Times, Washington Post.