Email Security and Spam News

Fake TweetDeck update lures prompt password resets

Are UK hackers behind Trojan horse attack?

Compromised Twitter accounts have been used to post links to an exploit portal that poses as a download site for an update to TweetDeck, the popular micro-blogging client software package.…

Yemeni assassin hits York man with spam death threat

We'll spare you for $50k

A software engineer form York has been left nonplussed after a group of hired guns from the Yemen Arab Republic claimed to have been contracted to "terminate" him with extreme prejudice.…

Survey scammers exploit Facebook dislike lure

D. Odgybloke likes this

Chancers are punting a survey scam on Facebook that poses as a curmudgeonly response to the social network's 'Like' button.…

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Waledac zombie attacks rise from the grave

As hard to kill as a horror movie baddie

Updated Update: Trend Labs has reclassified the malware as a Bredolab variant instead of Waledac. That means the central premise of out original story - that Waladec - is back from the grave - is wrong.…

Hoax Facebook virus makes more trouble than a real virus

Don't tell all your friends

A hoax Facebook virus is spreading rapidly across the social network.…

Vatican Google-bombed over weekend

Google points Holysee-kers to pedofilo.com

The Vatican was Google-bombed over the weekend, with searches for the Holy See directing unwitting punters to a mysterious site called www.pedofilo.com.…

Survey scammers offer fake Doctor Who clips

Soiled spoilers

Miscreants are exploiting interest in the season finale of Doctor Who by posting fake episode clips, spoilers and dubious download offers.…

$11.7m judgment against Spamhaus slashed to $27,000

End of line for 6.6 billion-strong spammer

A federal judge has handed a major victory to anti-spam crusaders Spamhaus, slashing an $11.7m verdict to just $27,002.…

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Conroy pledges to stop spams infecting Aussies' portals

It's enough to make you sic

Stephen Conroy has pledged to protect Australians from the threat of spam through their portals.…

British Library sinks beneath Strategy Boutique spam

Can it tell the difference?

Webinar: Monitoring holistic social media conversations…

ISP slapped with $807,000 fee for 'groundless' spam case

CAN-SPAM cuts both ways

An internet service provider that has brought more than 20 lawsuits alleging spam abuses has been ordered to pay one of the defendants almost $807,000 for filing "groundless claims" that mired the company in years of costly litigation.…

Eset slips on Comdom to stop spam emissions

Suited and booted

Slovak anti-virus firm Eset has acquired local anti-spam firm Comdom Software for an undisclosed amount.…

Spammers ordered to pay tiny ISP whopping $2.6m

$650,000 per employee courtesy of CAN-SPAM

A small internet service provider has been awarded nearly $2.6m in a lawsuit it filed against a company that sent just under 25,000 spam messages over an 18-month period.…

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Scammers attempt to cash in on volcanic ash travel chaos

Bizarre LHC black hole scam also runs

Scammers are hoping to hoodwink travellers who were stranded by the volcanic ash cloud last month as fresh plumes have disrupted flights once more in the UK.…

Infamous Storm botnet rises from the grave

Undead penis pill spam

After blowing itself out 18 months ago, the notorious Storm botnet is back, researchers from CA said Tuesday.…

Google: botnet takedowns fail to stem spam tide

'If one goes offline, spammers buy, rent, or deploy another'

Spam levels have remained resolutely stable despite recent botnet takedowns, according to a survey from Google's email filtering business.…

Pitchman fights to avoid jail for egging on supporters to spam judge

Virtual contempt case tests law

Controversial alternative medicine advocate Kevin Trudeau is fighting to stay out of jail after encouraging his supporters to spam a judge.…

Sophos sorry for blog comment spam campaign

Marketing agency gets up to mischief

Sophos has apologised after a third-party marketing agency hired by the anti-virus and anti-spam specialist sprayed link spam on the blog of security expert Gunter Ollmann.…

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Virgin Mobile fined for pushing mobile spam

Ignored Oz opt-outs

Virgin Mobile has been fined for sending spam messages to Australian mobile users who'd already opted out of receiving promotions.…

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Hacking human gullibility with social penetration

We don't need no stinking exploits

Security penetration testers Mike Bailey and Mike Murray rely plenty on attacks that exploit weaknesses in websites and servers, but their approach is better summed up by the famous phrase "There's a sucker born every minute".…

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Zombie tactics threaten to poison honeypots

Hive minds vs bot herders

Innovations in botnet technology threaten the usefulness of honeypots, one of the main ways to study how bot herders control networks of zombie PCs.…

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Scareware scams ride the back of killer whale tragedy

Black hats pee in the pool again

Supposed footage of Wednesday's fatal Sea World killer whale attack in Florida actually points at sites distributing scareware.…

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Spam filters stuff Canadian Beaver

Venerable magazine to adopt less suggestive title

Venerable Canadian publication The Beaver has been obliged to change its name after prudish spam filters objected to its suggestive title.…

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Pharma link spammers invade Live Space

Fake blog posts spamvertise knock-off pills

Cybercrime affiliates of unlicensed pharmaceutical websites have begun moving on from attacks purely designed to poison Google search engine results, and are now targetting Microsoft's web properties.…

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Return of MP3 spam punts penis pill sites

When Harry Met Spammy

MP3 spam has made an unwelcome return, two years after the tactic was first used to spamvertise products and services.…

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Facebook sues social network spammers

Alleged anti-social behaviour provokes lawsuit

Facebook has launched lawsuits against a trio of alleged high profile hijackers and spammers.…

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Honeynet research lifts the lid on spam trends

Busy bees reveal a hive of junk mail activity

Stats from the one billion spam messages blocked by Project Honey Pot over the last five years provide an insight into junk mail trends and spamming practices.…

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Ruggedised botnets pushing out even more spam

Future rogue ISP takedowns unlikely to bring relief

Cybercrooks have adapted to the takedown of rogue ISPs by building more resilient botnets.…

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Anti-spammers urged to gang up

Test suggests collaboration is the way to fight the wrong'uns

The combined efforts of anti-spam products outperform any individual products alone, according to an experiment by Virus Bulletin, the independent security certification organisation.…

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Ralsky jailed for four years over stock fraud spam scam

Godfather of spam sent down

Notorious spammer Alan Ralsky has been jailed for more than four years over his role in a masterminding a stock fraud spam campaign that made him an estimated $2.7m.…

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Spammers aim to profit from swine flu pandemic

Caution advised over modern day Harry Limes

Russian cybercrooks have laid the groundwork needed to build a business cashing in on swine flu panic-buying.…

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Next generation spammers rise up in Asia, India and Brazil

High-speed broadband allows worldwide miscreanting

A new generation of spammers is rising up in regions such as Asia Pacific, Japan, and South America, and beginning to outstrip their North American counterparts in junk mail output.…

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Controversial email blocklist SORBS sold

GFI confirms purchase of reputation service

GFI Software has confirmed the purchase of sometimes controversial spam blocklist provider SORBS for a reported $451,000.…

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Notorious Kiwi pill spammers slapped with fine

Herbal King dethroned

A gang of notorious spammers from Christchurch, New Zealand have been hit with fines in the first prosecution under the country's anti-spam laws.…

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Facebook awarded $711m in 'Spamford' Wallace case

Expects to receive almost nothing

Facebook has been awarded $711 million in damages against the infamous junk mail merchant, Sanford "Spamford" Wallace, who gained access to numerous accounts on the social website and sent phony messages to their friends.…

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Telecoms reform tabled as EU plots spam clampdown

Italy praised and UK shamed over enforcement

The European Commission is calling on tougher action to fight spammers and protect online privacy.…

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YouTube video spam promotes Russian real estate

A different kind of viral video

Russian security researchers have discovered a spam campaign that points towards video ads hosted on YouTube.…

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Spammers jump on Gmail, Hotmail mass-hack gravy train

Like manna from heaven

This week's airing of some 30,000 compromised Windows Live and Google Mail accounts has coincided with a spike in spam from those two services that promote sketchy electronics dealers, a researcher said.…

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Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! all hit by webmail phishing scam

I can see my address from here

Update Google has confirmed that Gmail has also been targeted by an "industry-wide phishing scheme" which first hit Hotmail accounts. Yahoo! and AOL are also reportedly affected.…

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Penis pill spam: The hard figures

$1,600 per spam run a day?

The economics of male enhancement pill spammers have been laid bare by security researcher Dmitry Samosseiko.…

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Twitter-based mafia game irritates world+dog

An offer you can refuse

An annoying Twitter-based Mafia game is getting under the skin of users of the micro-blogging service, many of who would sooner it slept with the fishes.…

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Worm wiggles through weary WordPress

Spam-friendly malware spanks Scoble blog

Hackers are exploiting older installations of WordPress to distribute blog comment spam and disguise links to malware-contaminated sites.…

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Anti-spam smackdown finds best junk filter

McAfee spanks all comers in early tests

McAfee has claimed the crown in a run-off of anti-spam products organised by Virus Bulletin, the independent security certification body.…

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US health-care debate clogged world's inboxes

Pharma-spam cashes in

When the US debates health care reform, the world's inboxes get clogged with health-related spam.…

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Obama site smackdown spam only offers malware

No DDoS! Denied!

Spam messages offering links to a tool designed to knock out the website of President Obama lead only to dodgy software.…

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Campaign Monitor reels from hack and spam attack

Australian mail marketing firm stumped

Australian email marketing application developers Campaign Monitor warned on Tuesday that it had been the victim of a hacking attack over the weekend.…

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US appeals court cans CAN-SPAM suit

A farewell to litigation factories

In a decision that could make it harder for internet users to take spammers to court, a federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against a company that sent a man more than 13,000 unsolicited emails.…

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Twitter meltdown raises questions about site stability

Micro-blogging site knocked over by stiff burst of wind

The paralysing effect of an internet attack against Twitter has raised questions about the site's apparent fragility.…

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Image spam: the threat returns

Did it ever go away?

Off we trot to the Reg Library to select some popular whitepapers for review. This week we mainline on email security, or to be more precise, email insecurity.…

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Dutch spam suspect fined €250K

Clogged interwebs with 21m junk mails

Dutch telecoms regulators have fined a junk email spammer €250,000.…

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