Connect those data firehoses to computers that have been infected with malicious software that turns them into criminally-controlled botnets, and you can expect them to spew out moremalicious traffic than ever.
This masquerade ended when apps seeded with BadNews got a prompt from one of three command and control servers, then it started pushing out and installing a moremalicious programme called AlphaSMS. This steals credit by sending text messages to premium rate numbers.