Despite the recent success authorities have enjoyed in shutting down certain major botnets such as Waledac and Mariposa, the BBC recently reported that spam levels have not faltered greatly and the threat of infection from the tainted messages is still very real.
Cyber criminals have become increasingly adept at spreading their botnets to several different sources, so when an ISP or server is neutralized, the threat still exists.
The threat of spam in the U.S. and Europe has been limited to an extent with email filtering and increased vigilance. In other parts of the world, the threats continue to grow.
"It is true that over the years spam campaigns have become less successful for certain age demographics in the USA and most of Europe, but not so much in Asia and developing countries." Paul Sop, chief technology officer at security firm Prolexic, told the BBC.
Microsoft recently acquired a court order to shut down the Waledac botnet. The measure proved successful, but web security experts noticed very little drop off in spam activity in the hours following the botnet's removal.
Tag Archives: spam
Latest web security problems for Facebook
Filed under Security News
Tagged as access, change, criminals, Cyber, email, Facebook, McAfee, password, security, spam, web
Tagged as access, change, criminals, Cyber, email, Facebook, McAfee, password, security, spam, web
McAfee advises all users of Facebook to carefully analyze any email received from the social networking giant in the next few weeks as several users have reported receiving emails requesting they change their password. Phishing scams related to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become one of the best methods for cyber criminals to compromise web security.
It's especially bad if a cyber criminals gain access to a Facebook user's account because people frequently use the same password for multiple websites and accounts.
Any email received ostensibly sent by Facebook that says a new password is available in an attachment should be discarded and reported to the company. Facebook does not reset passwords in this fashion.
"This threat is potentially very dangerous considering that there are over 350 million Facebook users who could fall for this scam," McAfee wrote on its blog. "This is also the sixth most prevalent piece of malware targeting consumers in the last 24 hours, as tracked by McAfee Labs."
In recent months, Facebook has been the target of criticism for its lack of action against the spread of malware. Ira Winkler, a Candian web security professional, sent an email to the company demanding that it remove an ad spreading scareware from the site last month.
It's especially bad if a cyber criminals gain access to a Facebook user's account because people frequently use the same password for multiple websites and accounts.
Any email received ostensibly sent by Facebook that says a new password is available in an attachment should be discarded and reported to the company. Facebook does not reset passwords in this fashion.
"This threat is potentially very dangerous considering that there are over 350 million Facebook users who could fall for this scam," McAfee wrote on its blog. "This is also the sixth most prevalent piece of malware targeting consumers in the last 24 hours, as tracked by McAfee Labs."
In recent months, Facebook has been the target of criticism for its lack of action against the spread of malware. Ira Winkler, a Candian web security professional, sent an email to the company demanding that it remove an ad spreading scareware from the site last month.
Web security breaches rock Hotmail
Filed under Security News
Tagged as breaches, change, Hotmail, malware, password, Rob Margel, security, spam, web
Tagged as breaches, change, Hotmail, malware, password, Rob Margel, security, spam, web
Users of Microsoft's free email service are advised by the Redmond, Washington-based software giant to change their passwords and be vigilant as an increase in spam activity on the site has led to web security breaches.
Accounts have been hacked in increasing numbers in recent weeks, and the cyber criminals have used the accounts to send spam to the entire contact list of the user. Victims have also reported that their email filter settings and other custom account features were changed following the breach.
"Hotmail is seeing instances of accounts being 'hijacked' by spammers who send emails out advertising an electronics website. The spam mails usually have subjects like 'Good shopping good mood' and may go to your contact list in addition to a random list of emails," Rob Margel of Microsoft wrote on his blog.
The spammers do not change passwords to prevent real users from using their accounts, but they intend to access the address more than once. Changing the password is the only way to prevent further damage.
The origin of the malware is unknown, but the results are similar to phishing attacks that take place on Twitter. The popular social networking site recently announced phishing attacks have become so frequent that it will now scan every link posted to the site for malware.
Accounts have been hacked in increasing numbers in recent weeks, and the cyber criminals have used the accounts to send spam to the entire contact list of the user. Victims have also reported that their email filter settings and other custom account features were changed following the breach.
"Hotmail is seeing instances of accounts being 'hijacked' by spammers who send emails out advertising an electronics website. The spam mails usually have subjects like 'Good shopping good mood' and may go to your contact list in addition to a random list of emails," Rob Margel of Microsoft wrote on his blog.
The spammers do not change passwords to prevent real users from using their accounts, but they intend to access the address more than once. Changing the password is the only way to prevent further damage.
The origin of the malware is unknown, but the results are similar to phishing attacks that take place on Twitter. The popular social networking site recently announced phishing attacks have become so frequent that it will now scan every link posted to the site for malware.
Email filtering technology working overtime, but spam won’t go quietly
While modern email filtering systems can block 95 to 99 percent of spam messages, according to Tech Target, mountains of unsolicited email are still delivered every day, accounting for the vast majority of all emails sent.
Why does spam continue to be sent in such numbers? Experts say, basically, it's because it works: "The return on investment is still very high for a very low click-through rate," according to Trend Micro researcher Paul Ferguson, speaking to Tech Target. Ferguson said that even one successful click-through to a discount pharmacy site being marked via spam can reap big dividends.
Malicious spam is another twist. While the most recent email phishing scams have been carefully targeted - called "spear phishing" - phony emails purporting to be from reputable sites are still making the rounds, trying to infect unsuspecting users with Trojans and dupe them into revealing valuable information.
Experts say that spam protection has outstripped other forms of computer security software in terms of effectiveness, but that user education and internet savvy are still critical to staying safe online.
Why does spam continue to be sent in such numbers? Experts say, basically, it's because it works: "The return on investment is still very high for a very low click-through rate," according to Trend Micro researcher Paul Ferguson, speaking to Tech Target. Ferguson said that even one successful click-through to a discount pharmacy site being marked via spam can reap big dividends.
Malicious spam is another twist. While the most recent email phishing scams have been carefully targeted - called "spear phishing" - phony emails purporting to be from reputable sites are still making the rounds, trying to infect unsuspecting users with Trojans and dupe them into revealing valuable information.
Experts say that spam protection has outstripped other forms of computer security software in terms of effectiveness, but that user education and internet savvy are still critical to staying safe online.
Online “swine flu” infects cyberspace
As they frequently do, purveyors of malware are using big news as a means to distribute their harmful programs. This time, it's the global swine flu crisis that opened the door.
Computer criminals have circulated an email message detailing an alleged conspiracy on the part of the pharmaceutical industry to infect the world with swine flu in order to profit from the outbreak. When opened, the message infects the user's computer with a virus capable of stealing personal and financial information.
While computer viruses spread in lockstep with physical ones, there are other, less sophisticated dangers in cyberspace associated with swine flu. Phishing scams promise critical information about the treatment and spread of the virus in exchange for personal information. Swindlers hawk bogus cures like "colloidal silver" as protection against swine flu.
Additionally, scammers skilled in search engine optimization (SEO) can catapult malware-installing websites to the top of search engine results for "swine flu" and other popular search terms. "Literally every current relevant news topic is actively targeted each day, including highly publicized speeches given by President Obama [last] week," wrote security expert Sean-Paul Correll at his blog on pandasecurity.com.
Computer criminals have circulated an email message detailing an alleged conspiracy on the part of the pharmaceutical industry to infect the world with swine flu in order to profit from the outbreak. When opened, the message infects the user's computer with a virus capable of stealing personal and financial information.
While computer viruses spread in lockstep with physical ones, there are other, less sophisticated dangers in cyberspace associated with swine flu. Phishing scams promise critical information about the treatment and spread of the virus in exchange for personal information. Swindlers hawk bogus cures like "colloidal silver" as protection against swine flu.
Additionally, scammers skilled in search engine optimization (SEO) can catapult malware-installing websites to the top of search engine results for "swine flu" and other popular search terms. "Literally every current relevant news topic is actively targeted each day, including highly publicized speeches given by President Obama [last] week," wrote security expert Sean-Paul Correll at his blog on pandasecurity.com.
Phishing attacks drop: Are computer users smarter?
The number of spam emails consisting of phishing spam - which is designed to trick recipients into divulging their personal information - has dropped by at least half this year, in a sign that computer users are getting wise to the attacks.
According to the mid-year online threat report from IBM, phishing made up just 0.1 percent of all spam in the first six months of this year, down from 0.2 percent to 0.8 percent of spam during the first half of 2008.
Although phishing still results in identity theft and fraud on a discomforting scale - as many as 55,000 new victims each month, according to one report - Kris Lamb, director of the X-Force research team at IBM, said computer users are getting better at identifying fraudulent emails and websites, according to the Associated Press.
Anti-virus protection software and better web browsers, which use reputation-based software to block websites that may host malware or phishing pages - could also have led to the drop-off.
However, cybercriminals may just be moving on to other tactics, such as targeting users of web 2.0 sites like Facebook and Twitter.
A number of rogue applications were spotted last week on Facebook that send messages with links to a phishing website for stealing login credentials. The apps attempt to harvest users' Facebook login names and passwords in order to send out more phishing spam from their accounts.
According to the mid-year online threat report from IBM, phishing made up just 0.1 percent of all spam in the first six months of this year, down from 0.2 percent to 0.8 percent of spam during the first half of 2008.
Although phishing still results in identity theft and fraud on a discomforting scale - as many as 55,000 new victims each month, according to one report - Kris Lamb, director of the X-Force research team at IBM, said computer users are getting better at identifying fraudulent emails and websites, according to the Associated Press.
Anti-virus protection software and better web browsers, which use reputation-based software to block websites that may host malware or phishing pages - could also have led to the drop-off.
However, cybercriminals may just be moving on to other tactics, such as targeting users of web 2.0 sites like Facebook and Twitter.
A number of rogue applications were spotted last week on Facebook that send messages with links to a phishing website for stealing login credentials. The apps attempt to harvest users' Facebook login names and passwords in order to send out more phishing spam from their accounts.
Spam offers Obama opponents chance to DDoS White House
A spam email detected by email security firm Proofpoint attempts to exploit anti-Obama sentiment by offering recipients a chance to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattacks on the White House - if they just download malware onto their PC.
The email subject heading says "Here You can buy DDoS" and in the body says "If You dont like Obama come here, you can help to ddos his site with your installs [sic]."
A link in the body takes users to a website that offers to pay visitors to install malware on their machines and advises them to return to the website for updated versions of the malware if it is detected by anti-virus software on their PC.
As the security experts at Proofpoint noted, voluntarily downloading malware onto your computer is a very bad idea.
But this spam points to how well the spammers and cybercriminals track popular trends to better target victims with their scams and malicious payloads.
In the wake of the inauguration of the new president, when his popularity was sky high, spammers tried to exploit pro-Obama sentiment. Now that his popularity is waning, the spammers shift gears to exploit the surge in opposition to his policies.
The email subject heading says "Here You can buy DDoS" and in the body says "If You dont like Obama come here, you can help to ddos his site with your installs [sic]."
A link in the body takes users to a website that offers to pay visitors to install malware on their machines and advises them to return to the website for updated versions of the malware if it is detected by anti-virus software on their PC.
As the security experts at Proofpoint noted, voluntarily downloading malware onto your computer is a very bad idea.
But this spam points to how well the spammers and cybercriminals track popular trends to better target victims with their scams and malicious payloads.
In the wake of the inauguration of the new president, when his popularity was sky high, spammers tried to exploit pro-Obama sentiment. Now that his popularity is waning, the spammers shift gears to exploit the surge in opposition to his policies.
Facebook adds security tools to guard against ID theft, spam
The growing popularity of social network Facebook, which says it now has 250 million users worldwide, has made the site a prime target for cybercriminals. Now, Facebook is trying to help users fight back against spam, phishing and identity theft with added security measures.
When a user's account is hacked, Facebook will send a notification email as before, but going forward, hacked users will have to go through a verification process when they attempt to access their profile again.
Users will be prompted to pick a new, secure password and will be referred to the Facebook Security Page, with "tips and information on how to be safe on Facebook and across the internet," according to Facebook site integrity team member Jake Brill, writing on the Facebook blog.
"This new change will help us not only fight spam, but also spread the word about security on Facebook," Brill said in the post. "In the coming months, we'll be rolling out similar processes to address the different threats people may face."
Cybercriminals have recently targeted users with password-stealing phishing attacks, malware and worms including Koobface.
A recent survey by Webroot suggests social network users, particularly those under 30, experience cyberattacks at a greater frequency.
When a user's account is hacked, Facebook will send a notification email as before, but going forward, hacked users will have to go through a verification process when they attempt to access their profile again.
Users will be prompted to pick a new, secure password and will be referred to the Facebook Security Page, with "tips and information on how to be safe on Facebook and across the internet," according to Facebook site integrity team member Jake Brill, writing on the Facebook blog.
"This new change will help us not only fight spam, but also spread the word about security on Facebook," Brill said in the post. "In the coming months, we'll be rolling out similar processes to address the different threats people may face."
Cybercriminals have recently targeted users with password-stealing phishing attacks, malware and worms including Koobface.
A recent survey by Webroot suggests social network users, particularly those under 30, experience cyberattacks at a greater frequency.
Spam researcher shows China not as ’spammy’ as you think
China gets a bad rap as the major source of source of spam, according to statistics analyzed by Microsoft email security researcher Terry Zink, who points out on his anti-spam blog that the U.S. is the "spammiest" country, pushing out nearly one-third of all junk emails.
But measuring the total amount of spam coming from different countries may not be the best way to determine how "spammy" a country is, Zink observed. So Zink ranked countries instead by spam per internet user.
"This normalizes the data," Zink explained. "Now a country with a very large population does not necessarily outrank one with a smaller population."
By this ranking, China does not even make the top 20 spammiest countries, while the Czech Republic ranks number one, with a spam per user rate of 4.38, followed by South Korea, Romania and the Netherlands, while the U.S. ranks fifth, with a spam rate of 2.01.
"China may send a lot of spam but Eastern Europe sure seems a lot more spammy than the Chinese," Zink wrote.
However, another way of looking at it suggests China is till the worst of the spammers. According to Project Honey Pot, China is the largest host of spam servers.
But measuring the total amount of spam coming from different countries may not be the best way to determine how "spammy" a country is, Zink observed. So Zink ranked countries instead by spam per internet user.
"This normalizes the data," Zink explained. "Now a country with a very large population does not necessarily outrank one with a smaller population."
By this ranking, China does not even make the top 20 spammiest countries, while the Czech Republic ranks number one, with a spam per user rate of 4.38, followed by South Korea, Romania and the Netherlands, while the U.S. ranks fifth, with a spam rate of 2.01.
"China may send a lot of spam but Eastern Europe sure seems a lot more spammy than the Chinese," Zink wrote.
However, another way of looking at it suggests China is till the worst of the spammers. According to Project Honey Pot, China is the largest host of spam servers.
Spam report: U.S. tops Q2 list of spam-sending countries
Spam email relaying PCs - called bots or botnets - typically reside in a handful of high-tech countries with plenty of internet users. In the second quarter of 2009, chances were better than one-in-six that a spam email was sent from a PC in the United States, according to internet security firm Sophos.
In its quarterly list of the top 12 spam relaying countries, called the "dirty dozen," Sophos said the U.S. ranked first, sending 15.6 percent of all spam. In contrast, Russia, a former spam superpower, fell from second last year to ninth in the most recent survey, sending just 3.2 percent of spam.
Sophos said the problem continues to be the number of unprotected PCs in the U.S. that have been infected by malware programmed by cybercriminals to send out junk email.
"If America could clean up its compromised PCs it would be a considerable benefit to everyone around the world who uses the [internet]," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "All web users need to properly defend their computers from attack and pledge to never act upon spam messages."
A recent survey by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group found that 12 percent of non-expert computer users have responded to spam because they were interested in the product or service offered.
In its quarterly list of the top 12 spam relaying countries, called the "dirty dozen," Sophos said the U.S. ranked first, sending 15.6 percent of all spam. In contrast, Russia, a former spam superpower, fell from second last year to ninth in the most recent survey, sending just 3.2 percent of spam.
Sophos said the problem continues to be the number of unprotected PCs in the U.S. that have been infected by malware programmed by cybercriminals to send out junk email.
"If America could clean up its compromised PCs it would be a considerable benefit to everyone around the world who uses the [internet]," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "All web users need to properly defend their computers from attack and pledge to never act upon spam messages."
A recent survey by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group found that 12 percent of non-expert computer users have responded to spam because they were interested in the product or service offered.