| McAfee: Watch out for 'island-hopping' spam
Some spammers are using the domain names of small islands for Web site links in their junk e-mail campaigns, the security company said. McAfee has traced spam activity related to the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and the tropical island of Tokelau, amongst others. Traditionally, spammers have used well-known top-level domains such as .com, .biz or .info in their campaigns. By using top-level domains from small island countries, they attempt to avoid detection, as these domains are typically unknown to spam filters. Using a lesser-known top level domain makes it harder to distinguish spam from legitimate e-mail by examining the links in the messages, according to McAfee. The trend was discovered when McAfee researchers noticed a significant increase in the use of .st, the top-level domain for Sao Tome and Principe, an island off the west coast of Africa, the company said.
Spammers gear up for pre-Christmas blitz
A sudden increase in spam has been identified in the latest security report issued today, as cyber-criminals gear up for a pre-Christmas blitz. Spammers are using new weapons to evade detection by conventional security software and increase their success rate, according to the October 2006 Intelligence report from security firm MessageLabs. One of these is a 'dropper' variant of the Warezov virus, which instructs the infected computer to download a second component, an executable file, from an IP address. Usually the .exe file downloads a spam message and email addresses, turning the infected computer into a spam production house, MessageLabs senior analyst Paul Wood told vnunet.com. Using a dropper technique means that Warezov does not have to deliver all its code in the initial infection, making it harder to detect using conventional antivirus software.
Google's Gmail Improves Spam Detection, MSN Hotmail Lags Behind
Only 3% of of opt-in e-mails were treated as spam by Gmail, according to a new report from Lyris, a maker of e-mail marketing software. That's a 15-fold improvement in performance compared to when Gmail launched in 2004.
The Lyris report also notes that: MSN Hotmail has improved its false-positive spam detection, but remains high (18.2% this quarter vs. 23.4% the previous quarter).European ISPs are better than American ISPs at filtering out false-positives. Compuserve and iwon.com aggressively filter spam, leading to a high rate of false positives. From the New York Times (which doesn't note the Hotmail stats):
In its latest quarterly test, Lyris tracked more than 57,000 e-mail messages, sent from 57 different businesses and nonprofit organizations to scores of e-mail addresses it owns in many different domains.
Control Your World
Wrapping a firewall around your network used to be all you had to do to establish a decent level of security. Not any more. In most cases, controlling your internal traffic is just as important as controlling the external traffic. To do that as best you can, most of you use a combination of the myriad hardware and software available to provide anti-virus, bandwidth management, content filtering, firewall services, intrusion detection, spam blocking, spyware and other management and security services. Total Traffic Control version 6.0 (TTC) is the latest incarnation of Lightspeed Systems' traffic management package. This incredibly granular tool covers all those functions mentioned above. It also has an extensive reporting capability with server and Web-based management utilities that let you set up for remote administration.
MX Logic Integrates Cloudmark Into Premium Email Defense Service
SAN FRANCISCO, CA and ENGLEWOOD, CO -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 17, 2006 -- Cloudmark, the proven leader in real-time messaging security, and MX Logic Inc., a leading managed security services provider of easy-to-use email and Web security solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, announced today that the Cloudmark Authority™ platform has been integrated into the MX Logic® Email Defense Service. Cloudmark Authority high-performance solution extends MX Logic's spam and phishing filtering capabilities. MX Logic can now provide business customers with greater zero-hour defense against email messaging abuse, image spam and non-English language spam, as well as improved detection of fraudulent phishing emails. The Cloudmark Authority platform resides within the MX Logic Stacked Classification Framework® spam detection system, which is powered by patented technology and combines the most effective spam-fighting filters and techniques in the industry.
Spammers go 'island-hopping' to avoid detection
Security software maker McAfee Inc. has identified a new spamming method, which it calls "spam island-hopping." Spammers use domain names of small islands as website links in sending spams and attacking computer systems. McAfee said these spammers, by using top level domains of small island countries, are succeeding in avoiding detection through spam filters as these filters do not recognize such domain names easily. The security firm has traced large scale spam activity originating from the Isle of Man in the Irish sea and the island of Tokelau, among others. .
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