Six Types of Social Spammers: Via Search Engine Journal.

I hate spammers, and I’m 100% certain other people do too. Everyone at some point in time has had some type of experience with spammers. But you almost have to admire these individuals, almost. The techniques used are as varied as the outlets in which they are unleashed. During my thirteen years of internet exposure, I’ve had the displeasure of running into six types of spammers.

Read Original Article:(Via Search Engine Journal.)

FBI, Telecoms Teamed to Breach Wiretap Laws: Via Threat Level.

The FBI and telecom companies collaborated to routinely violate federal wiretapping laws for four years, as agents got access to reporters’ and citizens’ phone records using fake emergency declarations or by simply asking for them.

The Justice Department’s Inspector General’s internal audit released Wednesday harshly criticized how the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Communications Analysis Unit — a counterterrorism section founded after 9/11 — relied on so-called “exigent” letters to get carriers to turn over phone records immediately. The letters were a hangover from the investigation into the 9/11 attacks in New York and promised telecoms, falsely, that subpoenas would follow shortly.

“The FBI’s use of exigent letters and other informal requests for telephone toll billing records circumvented, and in many cases violated, the requirements of the Electronic Communications Protection Act statute,” according to the report, which was referencing a leading federal wiretap law. [ Read more ... ]

"Godfather of Spam" goes to prison for four years: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.

Alan Ralsky, the so-called "Godfather of spam" was yesterday sentenced by a federal judge in Detroit to spend the next 51 months of his life in prison for wire fraud, mail fraud, and violations of the CAN-SPAM act.

Not content simply to move boxes of pills or to sign people up for new mortgages, Ralsky's operation instead pulled in millions of dollars through "pump and dump" schemes of thinly traded stocks in companies you've never heard of. [ Read more ... ]

Twitter Adds a Report Spam Option: Via Mashable.

Twitter spammers have been put on notice. Starting today, each profile on Twitter now includes a “report [username] for spam” link. When clicked, the feature alerts you that it will immediately block the user and report them to Twitter for review.

To-date, Twitter has been using the @spam account to allow users to quickly report spam messages via direct message. The “report spam” link should make this process a bit easier and more readily apparent for users of the Web interface.

Spam has been an ongoing problem with Twitter as it’s grown in popularity. We’ve discussed how spammers frequently target trending topics, as well as mass follow users in an effort to get them to click on links. Hopefully, this will be another step in alleviating the problem.

Read Original Article:(Via Mashable.)

Announcing the Spamhaus CSS: Via Spamhaus Blog.

While filtering methods for botnet spam are now quite effective, a new breed of static-IP address spammers has evolved, and their spam evades many filters. It is time to target the next great spam problem, "snowshoe" spam.

The Problem of Snowshoe Spam

Like many of you, we at The Spamhaus Project have seen a burgeoning flood of spam emails, not from compromised IP addresses or botnet ranges, but from static IP address ranges. The IP addresses that send this spam properly identify their host names when connecting to a mailserver. At first glance, the emails that they send look like legitimate bulk emails, except that they were sent to spamtraps or to our own email addresses, which we know did not ask for that email. Most of them send modest volumes of email that do not trigger automated spam blocking filters or reputation metrics. It is this technique, spreading the load out over a larger area, that gives snowshoe spam its name. [ Read more ... ]

Web 2.0 security risks scrutinized: Via Security - CNET News.

Web 2.0 sites that enable people to create content are increasingly used to carry out a wide range of attacks, according to a new security study.

Websense's State of Internet Security" (PDF), released Tuesday, notes that attackers are focusing their attention on interactive Web 2.0 elements. Some 95 percent of user-generated comments on blogs, message boards, and chat rooms are either spam or contain malicious links, the security vendor warned.

"The very aspects of Web 2.0 sites that have made them so revolutionary--the dynamic nature of content on the sites, the ability for anyone to easily create and post content, and the trust that users have for others in their online networks--are the same characteristics that radically raise the potential for abuse," Websense said in its report. [ Read more ... ]

When spammers try to go legitimate: Via Freedom to Tinker.

I hate to sound like a broken record, complaining about professional mail distribution / spam-houses that are entirely unwilling to require their customers to follow a strict opt-in discipline. But I'm going to complain again and I'm going to name names.

Today, I got a spam touting a Citrix product ("Free virtualization training for you and your students!"). This message arrived in my mailbox with an unsubscribe link hosted by xmr3.com which bounced me back to a page at Citrix. The Citrix page then asks me for assorted personal information (name, email, country, employer). There was also a mailto link from xmr3 allowing me to opt-out.

At no time did I ever opt into any communication from Citrix. I've never done business with them. I don't know anybody who works there. I could care less about their product. [ Read more ... ]

Conficker Doomsday Worm Sells Out For $50: Via Threat Level.

Last night the dreaded Conficker worm finally got the update we've been waiting for since April 1. But cyber Armageddon will have to wait another day. The botnet, as predicted here, is now dedicated to spam.

(If you think that's going to keep us from running our awesome Conficker War Room banner, you're nuts.)

Further disappointing doomsayers, the new download -- which seems to have been first spotted by Trend Micro -- took place through Conficker's longstanding peer-to-peer functionality, rather than the DNS lookups that gave us that delicious April 1 ticking clock. Kaspersky Labs' analysis of the new payload concludes this morning that Conficker is now serving victims a fake anti-virus product that offers to remove malware for $50. [ Read more ... ]

Spam data and trends: Q1 2009: Via Official Google Enterprise Blog: .

In providing email security to more than 50,000 businesses and 15 million business users, Google security and archiving services, powered by Postini, process and cull spam from more than three billion enterprise email connections every day. This gives us strong insights into the state of the spam industry, some of which we share in regular posts to this blog.

What we saw in the Postini data centers [ Read more ... ]

Spam Back to 94% of All E-Mail: Via Bits Blog - NYTimes.com .

Spam, that annoying but ignorable scourge of the Web, has finally recovered from the jolt it received last November, when Internet backbone providers cut off McColo Corporation, a California Web-hosting service that spammers were using to coordinate e-mail attacks.

The average seven-day spam volume during the latter half of March is now at roughly the same levels as October of last year — around 94 percent of all e-mail — according to the antispam company Postini, a division of Google. [ Read more ... ]

Vote: Will Conficker Botnet Trigger 'Unthinkable Disaster'?: Via Wired: Threat Level.

The 12-million computer strong Conficker botnet will fall under human control on April 1, leading some to speculate feverishly about what horror awaits an unsuspecting internet on what may be our last April Fools' Day ever.

Will Conficker become an evil twin to Google that lets criminals easily search for the valuable secrets of people running unpatched pirated copies of Windows in China and Brazil? Or is it a censorship-busting peer-to-peer network erected by lawless but well meaning cypherpunks?  Most disturbing, will it learn at an exponential rate until it becomes self-aware and decides humanity's fate in a microsecond? [ Read more ... ]

Giving Your Greytrapping a Helping Hand: Via Slashdot.

Peter N. M. Hansteen writes "Some spam houses have invested in real mail servers now, meaning that they are able to get past greylisting and even content filtering. Recently Peter Hansteen found himself resorting to active greytrapping to put some spammers in their place. The article also contains a list of spam houses' snail mail addresses in case you want to tour their sites."

Read Original Article (Via Slashdot.)

Verizon to Implement Spam Blocking Measures - Security Fix: Via Washington Post

Verizon.net is home to more than twice as many spam-spewing zombies as any other major Internet service provider in the United States, according to an analysis of the most recent data from anti-spam outfit Spamhaus.org. Verizon, however, says it plans to put measures in place to prevent it from being used as a home to so many spammers.

[...] [ Read more ... ]

“Name and Shame”, or socially responsible use of your log data: Via

Measures based on observed behavior

But those of us who actually run the service also have the opportunity to study the automatically generated log data from our systems and use spammers' (that is, senders of all types of unwanted mail, including malware) behavior patterns to remove most of the unwanted traffic before actual message content is known. In order to do that, it is necessary to go to a more basic level of network traffic and study sender behavior on the network level. [ Read more ... ]

KnujOn Updates Top 10 Spam-Friendly Registrars List: Via Slashdot

alphadogg writes "Some companies are more popular than others for spammers wanting to register their domain names. Spam-fighting organization KnujOn has updated its report on the top 10 registrars whose customers are linked to spam and other illicit activity. (We discussed the original report last year.) These 10 companies registered 83% of the domains spammed in KnujOn's sample of spam between June and January. KnujOn found that some companies have cleaned up their act in recent months and that others — most surprisingly, Network Solutions and GoDaddy sister company Wild West domains — have popped up on the list. At the top of KnujOn's list, for the second time in a row, is Xinnet.com, a Chinese registrar linked to more than 3 million spam messages. KnujOn recommends that ICANN threaten to pull Xinnet's accreditation, as it did for some of the offenders on the previous list."

Read Original Article ( Via Slashdot. )

Could Fake Phishing Emails Help Fight Spam?: Via Slashdot

Glyn Moody writes "Apparently, the US Department of Justice has been sending out hoax emails to test the security awareness of its staff. How about applying a similar strategy to tackling spam among ordinary users? If fake spam messages offering all the usual benefits, and employing all the usual tricks, were sent out by national security agencies around the world, it would select precisely the people who tend to respond to spam. The agencies could then contact them from a suitably important-looking government address, warning about what could have happened. Some might become more cautious as a result, others will not. But again, it is precisely the latter who are more likely to respond to further fake spam messages in the future, allowing the process to be repeated as often as necessary. The system would be cheap to run — spam is very efficient — and could use the latest spam as templates."

Read Original Article ( Via Slashdot. )

Despite Gates' Prediction, Spam Far From a Thing of the Past: Via Slashdot

Slatterz writes "Bill Gates declared in 2004 at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that spam would be 'a thing of the past' within five years. However, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, has written in a blog post that 'with the prophecy's five-year anniversary approaching, spam continues to cause a headache for companies and home users.'"

Read Original Article ( Via Slashdot. )

Lexus to roll out system that lets its cars talk to drivers - Via USATODAY.com :

For every company that ever dreamed of being able to talk directly to its customers, Toyota(TM) has found an answer.

It announced Wednesday that new Lexus vehicles will start being delivered later this year with a system that includes capability for voice messages sent directly from the automaker to its drivers.

Called Lexus Insider, the service will let Lexus send audio messages to participating owners on whatever subject it chooses, from tips on making the best use of the vehicles' features to suggestions for a scenic drive.

Toyota officials promise to be discerning and restrained. [ Read more ... ]

Lexus To Start Spamming Car Buyers In Their Cars - Via Slashdot:

techmuse writes "Lexus has announced plans to send targeted messages to buyers of its cars based on the buyer's zip code and vehicle type. Unlike regular spam, these messages will be delivered directly to the buyer's vehicle, and will play to the vehicle's occupants as audio. Lexus has promised to make the messages relevant to the car buyers." --- Imagine the fun that some targeted malware could do — not that such a thing could happen to a Lexus.

(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)

CastleCops Anti-Malware Site Closes Down: Via Slashdot

Fortran IV writes "Volunteer-powered anti-malware site CastleCops appears to have closed shop. As of Tuesday, December 23, the CastleCops home page notes: 'You have arrived at the CastleCops website, which is currently offline. . . . Unfortunately, all things come to an end.' It was reported back in June that Paul Laudanski, founder of CastleCops and its parent Computer Cops LLC, was taking a full-time job with Microsoft and was 'looking for new management' for CastleCops. The site has also long had problems with funding and with hostile action from spammers. The actual shutdown seems to have taken the security community by surprise; as late as Tuesday evening Brian Krebs was still recommending CastleCops on his Security Fix blog."

Read Original Article ( Via Slashdot. )

2008's biggest tech crime stories: Via Network World

From spammers to hackers to porn kingpins, a look back at the year in cybercrime

While 2008 didn't see any convictions of corrupt tech execs along the lines of Qwest's Joseph Nacchio or WorldCom's Bernie Ebbers , it did produce convictions for high-profile spammers, botnet operators, porn distributors and online scam artists as well as its share of other high profile network shenanigans, some of which haven't been sorted out in court yet.

Read Original Article ( Via Network World. )

Massive botnet returns from the dead, starts spamming: Via Computerworld

A big spam-spewing botnet shut down two weeks ago has been resurrected, security researchers said today, and is again under the control of criminals.

The "Srizbi" botnet returned from the dead late Tuesday, said Fengmin Gong, chief security content officer at FireEye Inc., when the infected PCs were able to successfully reconnect with new command-and-control servers, which are now based in Estonia.

Srizbi was knocked out more than two weeks ago when McColo Corp., a hosting company that had been accused of harboring a wide range of criminal activities, was yanked off the Internet by its upstream service providers. With McColo down, PCs infected with Srizbi and other bot Trojan horses were unable to communicate with their command servers, which had been hosted by McColo. As a result, spam levels dropped precipitously.

But as other researchers noted last week, Srizbi had a fallback strategy. In the end, that strategy paid off for the criminals who control the botnet. [ Read more ... ]

Facebook Wins Judgment Against Spammer: Via NYT > Technology

Facebook has a won $873 million judgment against a Canadian man who bombarded the popular online hangout with sexually explicit ''spam'' messages.

The victory, sealed with a judge's order issued last Friday, probably won't yield a windfall for privately held Facebook Inc., whose revenue this year is expected to range between $250 million to $300 million.

Court records indicate the alleged spammer, Adam Guerbuez of Montreal, has been difficult to find since Facebook sued him four months ago. [ Read more ... ]

Drilling Down: Unsubscribing Isn’t Always Immediate: Via NYT > Technology

It should be simple to unsubscribe from a company’s e-mail list: follow the link, and click the button. But, in reality, that click sets off a cascade of actions behind the scenes. First, the user’s e-mail address joins a suppression list, and then the marketer’s software compares the list with a queue of e-mail messages to be sent, sometimes stacked several days deep. [ Read more ... ]

Your school chum's not asking about you: Classmates.com sued: Via Ars Technica

"Your former classmates are trying to contact you! Upgrade now to see their messages!" That's the pitch many of us have seen from Classmates.com as a lure to pony up for a subscription. At least one former customer says that the claims are fraudulent and has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company. Depending on how the case moves forward, it could have an impact on how Classmates.com, and other sites, advertise their services.

San Diego resident Anthony Michaels had been a free member of Classmates.com since last year. However, the site—like dating sites that offer paid membership tiers—doesn't let you do anything all that interesting with the free tier. In order to see who has been looking at your profile and read messages from other members, users must first upgrade to a Gold Membership. That's when Michaels said he was tricked. He said that he began receiving messages from Classmates.com claiming that old classmates of his had been looking at his profile and trying to get in touch with him through the site. If only he would fork over some cash for a paid membership, he could see those messages and reconnect with that old high school crush!

Who could resist such a temptation? Michaels couldn't, and that's why he finally paid up in hopes of reading all those messages that his classmates had been sending him. Upon doing so and logging in, however, he was greeted with crushing disappointment. Not a single message was waiting for him in his Classmates.com inbox, and none of the people who had been viewing his profile were ones he knew or was familiar with. [ Read more ... ]