A hacker faces 60 years in prison and a $1.75m fine after pleading guilty to infecting hundreds of thousands of computers with malware in order to steal money from Paypal accounts. John Schiefer, 26, admitted that he and some associates developed malware that allowed them to create botnet armies of as many as 250,000 computers. Schiefer was able to collect information sent from the infected computers, including usernames and passwords for Paypal … read more »
November 12th, 2007 in
Spam Source:
newsnow.co.uk
Emails containing malicious PDF files have been putting computers at risk since Friday, Finnish security software firm F-Secure said on Saturday. “The emails, sent in bulk, looked like credit-card statements, and contained an attachment called ‘report.pdf’,” chief research officer Mikko Hypponen said in a statement.
When such PDF files are viewed on vulnerable machines, they start downloading software from servers in Malay… read more »
October 29th, 2007 in
Random Security,
Spam Source:
zdnet.co.uk
The Storm Worm’s days may be numbered, according to a University of California researcher. A network security analyst at UC San Diego, Brandon Enright, has been tracking Storm since July and said that, despite the intense publicity that the network of infected computers has received, it’s actually been shrinking steadily and is presently a shadow of its former self. On Saturday, he presented his findings at the Toorcon hacker conferen… read more »
October 22nd, 2007 in
General News,
Spam Source:
newsnow.co.uk
rafty spammers overnight launched a new wave of pump-and-dump scams, this time delivering junk mail that includes audio attachments encouraging recipients to buy a penny stock. Experts today said the new MP3 spam tactic is creative, but it seems to be a natural progression following runs of image, PDF and Excel junk mail earlier this year.
Anti-spam outfits reported Storm Worm-driven MP3 spam runs of about 10,000 per hour, accounting for roughly … read more »
October 19th, 2007 in
Spam Source:
scmagazine.com
PayPal and eBay are easily the most common brands used in online scams, a PhishTank report reveals.
The report – based on the end-user submission of almost 300,000 emails believed to be phishes – shows PayPal and its parent eBay served as the lure in 63,437 verified phishing emails.
PayPal was spoofed in 31,719 emails, while the eBay name was faked in just one fewer email, according to the report from PhishTank, a community-based anti-phishin… read more »
October 11th, 2007 in
Spam Source:
scmagazine.com
Spam in the form of HTML email is still rampant, while PDF, image and e-card spam is on the decline, a new report finds. According to Symantec’s latest monthly spam report, spam accounted for 70 percent of all email in September, which is one percent higher than the month before.
However, PDF spam, which saw a surge in August, dipped last month. Image and e-card spam volumes also fell. Image spam went from 10 percent of total spam in August… read more »
October 9th, 2007 in
Spam Source:
zdnet.co.uk
A feature on YouTube that enables users to share videos with friends is being exploited by spammers to deliver junk mail, security experts have warned. “YouTube users have a facility where they can invite their friends to view videos that they are looking at or have posted,” said Bradley Anstis, director of product management of email security firm Marshal. “This effectively allows them to email to any address from their YouTube… read more »
Spammers are using YouTube’s servers to send massive quantities of unsolicited email, according to security firm Marshal.
The company has warned email users to be wary of messages carrying YouTube invites which appear to derive from the video-sharing site’s ‘Invite Your Friends’ feature, claiming the compromised servers are sending out spam messages from the service@youtube.com address.
“YouTube users have a facility whe… read more »
October 5th, 2007 in
Spam Source:
newsnow.co.uk
Hackers are using the lure of gift cards in spamming attacks, according to a Symantec report.
The junk messages claimed to “provide” gift cards for a range of products and services, including History Channel magazine subscriptions and Dominos Pizza, if the recipient completes a survey, the security company said.
The report also shows that text- and HTML-based attacks are on the up - with 100 million emails sent during one attack in September … read more »
October 5th, 2007 in
Spam Source:
scmagazine.com
Recent reports point out that the United States National Security Agency will get back at any hacker trying to mess up their systems. Also, it is a known fact that they hack their way into different communication networks to wiretap – they’re just monitoring any possible terrorist conversation. Now, these are just security measures, and though the second is violating privacy, they can’t be called something bad.
However, things are different… read more »
October 4th, 2007 in
Random Security,
Spam Source:
newsnow.co.uk
