Are they human? No, they're spammers
Thursday, December 11, 2008
As spam levels continue to rise, a security blog points to this year's security-breaching trend of cybercriminals using legitimate email providers.
Providers such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo have been "systematically abused by spammers," a Zdnet.com blog reports.
According to a recent MessageLab Intelligence annual report, an average of 12 percent of the spam this year came from those seemingly legitimate emails with the highest reported instances occurring this past September, which was 25 percent.
Spammers are accomplishing this by defeating the security measure CAPTTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart).
Another problem may be the fact spammers are finding ways to exploit providers such as Gmail to work for them. A research paper released this year titled Exploiting the Trust Hierarchy among Email Systems highlighting vulnerabilities in Gmail that would allow someone to send as many as 4,000 messages through one account.
In November, spammers were dealt a blow when hosting firm McColo was shut down. Though spam dropped by 42 percent, the level has been rising ever since, almost making the closing of McColo irrelevant.
Related News:
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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.
Social networking games profting from malware, moving to iPhone - 3.15.2010
Games like Farmville and Mafia Wars have become increasingly popular on popular social networking sites like Facebook. For users who pay for the service, the threat of malware and spam is minimal. However, those who provide contact information and fill out surveys in exchange for points in the games open themselves up to scareware, spam and other problems.
Web security breaches rock Hotmail - 3.12.2010
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.
Spam won't go away, but it can be avoided - 3.10.2010
Email filtering works to an extent in ridding computers of spam, but those pesky emails offering millions of dollars for nothing and inexpensive prescription drugs always seem to find a way through even the most stringent filters.
Spammer arrested on extortion charges - 3.9.2010
A California man was arrested and charged with extortion following a threat he made to insurance company New York Life to send spam emails aimed at hurting the company's reputation. Anthony Digati of Chino, California also planned to send spam to the company in hopes of receiving $200,000.
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