More Glitches in the ATS Matrix

[l0st]

That doesn't make much sense, as that would alert the sites' administrators and it would be easy for the hosting companies to block any outgoing emails.

Also, if they only needed to send emails, why do all that? They could just send the emails from compromised sites without the admins know. In fact, it would be easier for the hackers to use compromised personal computers to send those emails.

Arguably, a hacked server is a "compromised personal computer" in most cases. SQL injections are child's play. A single query could lock out the user db (or only the admins, if you like). Windows PCs used to be the platform of choice but it does appear Linux exploits are gaining a lot more traction recently. A potential explanation for this is that nearly all Windows machines forcibly auto-update now, but typically servers are only updated when an admin initiates that process. So, a "zombie' website becomes a better attack surface because it's unlikely to be automatically updating without admin intervention.

I don't think it's just about sending emails, but maybe using the same server as a jump point for further nefarious activities. For example, an attacker could use a compromised system to run a service like BNC to reflect their traffic and anonymize their connections to a third party.