Those of you who follow this type of thing know that email spam levels have declined in the recent past due to a number of factors:

• First, several take downs of high volume botnets have bitten a large chunk out the automation of email spam.
• Then there’s the simple fact that we’ve been reporting for a while now – that users have gotten more savvy to the dangers of spam, and so have the spammers. Spam in its basest form just isn’t that successful anymore because, let’s face it, there are only so many Nigerian princes needing to get their money out of the country.
• Spammers have gotten more targeted and more personal in their attacks. Most of the data we’ve seen over the past year or so suggests that spammers are having much more success when they learn something about their targets and take the personal approach. It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you’re going to try to bilk someone out of their hard-earned Benjamins, then you should at least know their name and where they live.
• Spammers have found a new place to drop their drawers, as it were. Social media sites are resplendent with users who have less than no clue about the inherent dangers of a single mouse click. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and others are breeding grounds for spam artists who know, just like you and I do, that users will share things about themselves online that they probably wouldn’t share with a stranger if they met him on the street. Ironic, isn’t it?
• Then there’s mobile spam. Texting, whether successful or not, seems to be the new fad among spammers, perhaps because their fingers are so tired from counting all their money that all they have left to type with is their thumbs. As it turns out, it can be lucrative, too.

Welcome back to the next in our series on talking to regular people about spam. In today’s post we are going to talk about how to identify suspicious links. Links are intended to open your web browser to view a specific page, and yes, doing something as simple as that can harm your computer. These web pages can contain malware, code designed to do anything from steal personal information to infect your computer with a virus. This malware can do its damage if you view the page in your browser, so if you think “what’s the harm in looking?” believe me, the harm can be significant. This is one time where the phrase “better safe than sorry” really counts, so if you think there is even a remote chance a link could be bogus, don’t click it! But since spammers will often make their emails appear to come from a legitimate source, and disguise their links to look like something you’d feel safe clicking, we need to take a closer look at how to identify suspicious links.

In March, Microsoft made more headlines when it took down yet another botnet. This time it was a highly publicized takedown of a ZeuS and SpyEye banking Trojan botnets, brought about by pulling the plug on two command and control servers, one in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the other in Lombard, Illinois. Dubbed Operation b71 and accompanied by some informative and entertaining video, it was yet another example of Microsoft’s commitment to leading the war on spam, bots and malware, one for which they’ve taken some positive press over the past couple of years – and well-deserved press, some would say.  For those of us who eat, breathe and dream security, we all nodded in approval and returned to our daily routines of fighting the spam war on different fronts, assured in the knowledge that the Redmond Mega Corporation has our backs, as it were.

Like anything else related to technology, spam has evolved over the years.

The change comes from spammers reacting to many things:

• How spam filters identify their messages
• How recipients react to their messages
• What types of spam campaigns yield a profit
• The evolution of the botnet
• The ability to take advantage of malicious web pages
• The large amount of zero day threats
• More knowledgeable recipients.

A new spam campaign is exploiting the OpenID security protocol. The messages look like legit emails from local real estate companies and invite the recipient to view properties for sale in their area using the logo of well-known realtors like …

Welcome back to another in our series of articles on talking about spam. I have to apologize for this one, since in the title I broke one of the cardinal rules I set for this series; I used a technical term. I used a term that most in IT are familiar with, and almost no one outside of IT is, but it is a term, or rather an acronym, that distinctly and succinctly sums up one of the most insidious weapons spammers and phishers use against their targets. Knowing what the term means might not win you Final Jeopardy, but it will help you to understand and recognize attacks for what they are. FUD is pronounced exactly as it looks, and stands for the big three emotions that make most people believe things they should not; Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

  Newt 2012, the organization behind the now defunct presidential campaign of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is showing a truly ugly side of itself. It’s no secret that presidential campaigns require a lot of money, and Gingrich’s was no exception. …

In today’s post, we’re going to take a look at some actual spam messages to help you get a feel for what spam looks like. We’ll point out some of the obvious characteristics, as well as some of the more subtle traits that tend to be common amongst spam, to help you get more familiar with identifying it yourself. Once you know what to look for, spotting spam becomes less like “Where’s Waldo” and more like spotting the wolf amongst the sheep. Once you know what to look for, it’s hard to believe you ever missed it.

The Register shared a new report which revealed that cybercriminals are continuing to abandon traditional email spam for easier and more lucrative methods.  While at one time spamming through email was so prolific that a full 98% of all emails send worldwide …

Just recently, India overtook the United States as the country who is responsible for sending out the most spam. According to Spamfighter.com, one out of every ten emails originating from India is spam.

Most people wouldn’t find this surprising at all because of the assumption that India is a base for cyber criminals intent on ripping off the hard working public.

But if this were the case, why did India unseat the United States for this honor?