Notorious spam-spewing Rustock botnet, which had been flooding computers with junk emails, finally got dismantled by Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit. Rustock botnet had been allowing its operators to dispense large volumes of spam to advertise everything from right counterfeit software to fake drugs.

Confirming the takedown of Rustock, Richard Boscovich of the Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit said, "Today, I'm happy to announce that based on the knowledge gained in that effort, we have successfully taken down a larger, more notorious and complex botnet known as Rustock.

Microsoft worked with security firms and law enforcement agencies to get rid of Rustock botnet. Microsoft has started taking stiffer actions against several online nuisances such as spam because it believes such nuisances are harming its product as well as reputation.

Spam put unnecessary burden on the servers of Microsoft's Hotmail email service, and impacts the Internet experience of its users. Moreover, the malicious code used by spammers exploits security holes in products like that of Windows operating system.