| Image-based spam defeats filters
Spam messages that use images, rather than text, to ply their wares now account for 30 per cent of all unsolicited email, new figures show. Stats released by security firm Secure Computing show that emails where spammers hide messages in image files to escape detection have increased 200 per cent over the past few months. Filtering image spam is more difficult than with text-based messages as traditional methods are not effective. "Image-based spam is a particularly difficult problem for a couple of reasons," said Michael Osterman, founder and principal of Osterman Research. "It is much harder to detect with conventional spam filtering and blocking technologies, and is typically much larger than normal text-based spam, consuming much more bandwidth and storage." Image spam can even defeat filters that use optical character recognition software to convert images into text.
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.
E-mail Disrupted on Friday
Thousands of spam messages were sent using compromised Athena accounts early in the morning on Friday, Oct. 6, delaying some outgoing mail delivery. Network administrators discovered the intrusion when they noticed that the server responsible for outgoing authenticated mail was under unusually high load late at night. They found the e-mail server attempting to deliver thousands of spam messages. As a result of the intrusion, the server responsible for outgoing authenticated mail was put on a number of blacklists, including spamcop.net, listing servers known to send spam, according to Jeffrey I. Schiller '79, the network manager for Information Services & Technology. Other e-mail services like Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail use such blacklists to automatically reject incoming mail coming from e-mail servers known to be sending spam.
Could I use spam to make a profit, legally and ethically?
Last night on my drive home, I listened to a story on 'pump-and-dump' spam that's being sent out on a daily basis. You know the stuff, "Stock XYZ is going to go ballistic today!!!", which it often does because there's a fool born every minute who'll believe this and act on it. Presto, the stock's up for a couple of days, the spammers sell theirs and then everyone starts getting wise and selling off. A week or so later, the stock's 5% or so lower than when it started. No one wins, except the spammers. I'm not big into stock, but I started wondering if it would be ethical and honest to start arranging for a put on the stocks that are listed in these spam messages. You know, one of those arcane devices thought up by stock analysts that let you sell the stock now, hoping it's price will go down, and then you have to purchase the real stock at a later date. Since it's pretty normal for these stocks to drop after the spam has run its course, you'd be pretty sure of making your profit, just not in the way the spammers are expecting. Unluckily, the owners of the stock in question still lose out in the bargain.
Tumbleweed Communications Receives New Spam Filtering Patent From ...
(RTTNews) - Tuesday morning, Tumbleweed Communications Corp. (TMWD | charts | news | PowerRating), a provider of secure Internet communication solutions for enterprise and government customers, announced that it has received new spam filtering patent from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The company said new patent, named "Method and system for filtering communication," describes an email relay that filters messages coming into an email network by comparing attributes of the messages to data derived from spam messages, stored in a spam database. Tumbleweed's patent portfolio includes 24 granted U.S. utility patents. The patent portfolio covers secure communication over Internet standards. TMWD is currently trading at $2.80, down $0.02 or 0.71%. Copyright(c) 2006 RealTimeTraders.com, Inc.
Trick or Treat: Internet Zombies Scare Up Halloween Spam
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While children put the finishing touches on their costumes for tomorrow's Halloween holiday, spammer-activated zombie networks have been busy sending out Halloween-related spam messages to unsuspecting Internet users. Commtouch (Nasdaq:CTCH), the leading OEM provider of anti-spam, Zero-Hour virus outbreak protection and IP Reputation services to messaging, security and networking companies, has identified thousands of Halloween-related spam attacks in recent days. Spammers have found creative Halloween-related titles for traditional spam themes: "Absolutely single!!! Halloween matches!!!!!!" -- for dating/love spam "Super Halloween cash drawing … sign up now" -- for get rich quick/gambling Pharmaceutical spam turns into: "Check out our special limited time offers on prescriptions.
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