In Part 2 of our look at what you can expect in the coming year, faint rumblings out of Japan suggest that one prediction from Part 1 of this article has already come true. If the very real prospect of becoming an innocent casualty of war isn’t enough to make you run backward toward the year that just passed, these bold predictions reveal how hackers will develop an even stronger sense of camaraderie, and how mobility is sure to become a four-letter word. And if you thought spamming and Internet scams made it personal in 2011, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

How about that? 2012 wasn’t even seven days old when news out of Japan this week revealed some eerie premonitions of the things to come and earmarks of a bold prediction made one week ago.  Engadget, ZD Net and other media outlets are reporting that the Japanese government has been working in concert with Fujitsu since 2008 to develop a powerful ‘cyber weapon’ – a piece of software that, upon the detection of a cyber attack (such as DDoS, for example) tracks the attack back to the source.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Sure, until you consider that the software also attacks and disables every machine it finds along the trail. The goal, Engadget reports:

“is to stop the spread of a malicious piece of code by finding and shutting down, not just the source, but all middleman PCs that are also now potential hosts. In some admittedly extreme scenarios this weapon could potentially spiral out of control, taking out far more computers than intended.”

Hmm… Botnets are nothing more than large numbers of unsuspecting computers carrying out their attacks at the behest of the infector and ignorance of the computer’s owner. Japan’s little toy, while it sounds like it might be fun to take for a spin, could have the unpleasant and unprecedented effect of being the cause of some serious collateral damage. Casualties of war? Here’s a tip for everyone: while you still have a chance, give that fave desktop or laptop of yours a great big hug before it’s too late.

1. Hackers of the World, Unite

Robin Hood met Mafia Boy last year as hacktivism took center stage. Indeed, 2011 was an entertaining year for anyone who followed the exploits of Anonymous and LulzSec. The drama unfolded like a kabuki play born in the mind of Ken Kesey and brought to life by a troupe of mimes with Tourette Syndrome, and there were even a few arrests along the way to make this reality show really…ahem… arresting.

Prediction: We will see some new hacking activity from these groups, with some high profile web takedowns in the process. While that’s not a stretch, this is: hacker groups like Anonymous and LulzSec will grow in size substantially, resembling an ‘occupy’ type movement that will take the war online. The civil and social unrest of 2011 will turn to face the financial behemoth that is the Internet.

2. Mobility Means Vulnerability

If we learned anything about spam in 2011, it’s that spam is like that proverbial bum of a brother-in-law who’s been living in your basement for the past two years. It’s not going away, good luck making it work for you, and you will be out-of-pocket at some point. Spammers continued to use every means at their disposal in 2011, with SMS spam becoming a real pain in the neck. Security flaws in the two most popular smartphone platforms – iOS and Android – just accented what we already suspected: that spammers and purveyors of malware had taken their show on the road.

Prediction: 2012 will see a massive increase in mobile spam, and mobile devices will become the swords upon which we will live or die unless we get mobile security under control.

3. It’s Nothing Personal…Well, Actually, It Is

A significant development in spam and phishing in 2011 was the way in which the scam artists were getting smarter; you know, smarter in much the same way that a chunk of igneous rock living at the bottom of a fetid riverbed is smarter than a rotting patch of lichen hanging for dear life to the side of an oak tree. Like it or not, the scambags are wilier, finding new and innovative ways to pick your pocket without actually residing in the same time zone.

Prediction: The scambags will become even cleverer in their assaults, finding new methods to lull people into a false sense of security. How this will occur remains to be seen, but our bold prediction is that it will most likely involve highly targeted, multilevel campaigns where the scammer will use detailed knowledge of the targets, and multiple contact methods like email, phone, SMS and even snail mail to enact their evil schemes.

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Bold Predictions for 2012 (Part 2)

While the fat man in the red suit has already signed-off on his naughty or nice list, there’s one nasty little child holed up somewhere in Russia who needs to get a large lump of coal in his stocking this year. Or if not a lump of coal, then a shiny new pair of law enforcement-grade handcuffs.

What is it about this time of the year that brings out the worst in people? Religious beliefs aside, there’s something about this time of the year that should make all people take a deep breath, send a little good will out to fellow humans, and, well… just smile, dammit. Unfortunately, for spammers and scammers, it appears that there’s no room for taking time off over the holidays and treat others with the dignity and respect that most people recognize as a necessary element of a living, breathing society.

Case in point: The Register reported earlier this month that three anti-scam sites were inundated with a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack over several days, effectively rendering the sites useless. According to The Register:

“The sites – 419eater.com, scamwarners.com and aa419.org (Artists Against 419) – were swamped with junk traffic for several days. During the attack the sites’ administrators turned to blogs, Facebook and other alternative channels to distribute news of newly detected fake payment sites and other urgent anti-fraud information.”

According to an anonymous Register reader:

“These websites and their users provide excellent exposure for online fraud activities and have been responsible for allowing thousands of prospective victims to detect a scam in play, and get out before losses are incurred They also work actively to kill fake bank sites, fake freight forwarding sites and other criminal resources.”

The Register reported that two of the three sites were back in working order in a few days, but the story takes a nefarious turn from here. Early speculation was that a Russian scam artist was responsible for the attacks, and not long afterwards, someone over at ScamWarners contacted The Register and divulged that the attack:

“was perpetrated by a scammer who became angry at a topic posted on 419Eater, which exposed his scam. 419Eater.com was first attacked and ScamWarners began to publicise it via Twitter and Facebook. The next day [Thursday], ScamWarners was also attacked. The scammer then sent an email to me, threatening both ScamWarners and 419Eater. We were told to cease exposing their information and reporting their Amazon sites or we would both be eradicated from cyberspace.”

If that last sentence didn’t outrage you at least a little bit, go back and read it again. Is it necessarily foolish and naïve to believe that even scammers – scumbags who invest a significant amount of time into developing malware designed to bilk little old ladies living on fixed incomes out of their precious savings – might take a little time off during Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukah, Ashura, or whatever religious observance you prefer to…uhm…observe? Absolutely it is. One could assume that’s what bulbous men in red tights with fist-sized lumps of coal are for. But acceptance isn’t enough. This is a time of the year “when want is keenly felt, and abundance rejoices”, as Dickens pointed out; yet the inhumanity of the deeds of a few are enough to make this writer wonder how we continue to survive the ravages of human nature – in other words, ourselves.

It’s been a year fraught with cyber crime and cyber busts, with malicious attacks and new forms of spam; with new scams and chilling suggestions of things to come. For this week, anyway, most of us will rejoice at the presence of family and friends, and sadly, many will go hungry. Here’s hoping that in 2012, we will have a chance to see more of these scammers on our little blue-green orb find the other side of steel bars.

Next week: tune in for our top 10 list of popular torture methods for 2012.

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Lump of Coal Edition: When Scammers Attack

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and what better way to take a look back at the year in spam than poke a little fun at the moronic state of the crap that invades our inboxes? In a year that saw major security breaches, several high profile botnet takedowns, and an unprecedented surge in personalized scams and mobile spam, we stop to reflect upon it all and submit a simple postulate: what if Dr. Seuss had been a spammer?

As the year winds down to a close, it’s only basic human nature to look back at the year that just passed and reflect upon it. In the world of spamming and Internet scams, that’s bound to be a painfully long look, since this has been a year fraught with new scams, major cybercrime busts, and unprecedented levels of security threats. With mobile devices providing the newest threat opportunities, and SMS spam picking up a head of steam as scammers get creative, we must be even more vigilant when fighting spam-related threats.

What’s in store for 2012? One must shudder when imagining the possibilities. If anything like 2011, next year will represent an even more dangerous landscape, cluttered with mines and booby traps the likes of which we’ve never seen.

Dire prophecies and doomsday mentality aside, it doesn’t hurt to poke fun at spam once in a while, and during the holidays, no one is more fun than the venerable Theodor Seuss Geisel, known to adoring children and former children alike as Dr. Seuss. Like many households, it’s a holiday tradition around here to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, an annual ritual which inspired this writer to wonder: what if Dr. Seuss was still with us, and what if, ahem, wait for it…Dr. Seuss was a spammer?

The thought itself is sure to bring a smile to the face of anyone who has endured the miserable drivel that infests inboxes like brown marmorated stink bugs. Poorly written and replete with ludicrous stories that must have been contrived during bad acid trips, these emails often frustrate us, and occasionally make us smile by virtue of their sheer stupidity. What they do not do, however, is give us any confidence that the human race is poised to survive much longer, if this epidemic of oafishness is representative of the current state of the gene pool.

So without further ado, here’s a humble attempt at imagining what spam might be like, if written by Dr. Seuss:

The Spammer Who Stole Christmas?

Dear stranger, forgive me for this intrusion

I hope my letter will ease your confusion.

I will not, cannot state it enough

This is rough stuff, even a little tough.

There’s a Libyan prince who lost his good fortune

And my offer to you is a share of the portion.

I cannot get the funds out of my land

And I hope you will aid me by lending a hand.

You see, there are sums in excess of millions

If you give me your name, I’ll give you gazillions.

It’s okay to give me personal information

They don’t extradite criminals in my tiny nation.

Your bank account and credit cards are essential

They’re only for scamming and merely referential.

This is for good cause, I must admit

Send money now and show you commit.

I do not wish to enter a heated debate

Send it fast, send it now, it cannot wait.

The funds are for my stately Kenyan mansion

It’s in great need of a major expansion.

Happy Holidays to all!

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If Dr. Seuss Was a Spammer

With Christmas just around the corner, the FBI can’t be accused of waiting until the last minute to get their Christmas shopping done. This week, the U.S. law enforcement agency – in partnership with several U.S.-based and international agencies – gave users around the world an early present when it announced the culmination of a two year operation dubbed ‘Operation Ghost Click’, which netted the Feds six Estonian nationals and saw the Christmas tree lights yanked on the infamous DNSChanger malware scam.

It’s been a busy year for the law enforcement community and its ongoing war against Internet crime, which has experienced some success with the takedown of two major botnets in Rustock and Coreflood. But global law enforcement agencies have frantically been creating a shopping list of new targets for investigation, which undoubtedly include a carousel of security breaches, both in major corporations and government departments, the wafting scent of state-sponsored and industrial hacking, the persistent and growing threat of hacktivism, and a raft of other exotic security threats. All of the above are wreaking havoc on the connected world, so when law enforcement wins one for the little guys, we damn well want to give credit where credit is due. We even have to send out kudos for coming up with a sexy name for a two-year long operation that saw six dirtbags paraded away in handcuffs. ‘Operation Ghost Click.’ How cool is that?

Anyone familiar with malware should be all-too-familiar with the DNSChanger scam, a Trojan horse distributed through multiple means, particularly spam e-mails. When activated, DNSChanger modifies DNS settings so that legitimate URLs are redirected to malicious sites bent on stealing information and earning ad revenues for the scam artists. Since 2007, DNSChanger has infected over four million unsuspecting computers, both Mac- and Windows-based. A half million of those are estimated to have been infected in the U.S., and the total haul for DNSChanger is estimated at $14 million over the past four years – reason enough for the joint collaboration of the FBI, NASA, the Estonian Police and Border Patrol, and the National High Tech Crime Unit of the Dutch National Police Agency, to name a few of the involved partners.  The full list of parties responsible for the takedown can be found on the FBI’s official news release here.

DNSChanger and its Mac OSX variants – known as OSX.RSPlug.A, OSX/Puper, and OSX/Jahlav-C – prompted antivirus and antimalware developers to create tools to detect and remove its malevolent ass, but the malware continued to propagate, which is where Operation Ghost Click comes in. On November 8, two data centers – in New York and Chicago – were raided and more than a hundred command and control servers were taken offline. “To reduce the disruption to infected machines,” The Register reports, “the rogue DNS servers have been replaced with modified machines that are being operated for the next four months by the not-for-profit Internet Systems Consortium.”

Infected users should now be experiencing healthy DNS activity, even if the IP addresses of their systems have been compromised by DNSChanger. Users who wish to check if their systems have been compromised can use the FBI’s rogue DNS checker site. CNET also has some helpful information for Mac users who wish to manually check for DNSChanger infection.

Now for the fun part: simultaneous with the server shutdown, Estonian police took six individuals into custody.  According to The Register,

“Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said the scam was controlled by an Estonian company known as Rove Digital. Six Estonian nationals have been arrested by local authorities, and the federal prosecutors plan to seek the defendants’ extradition to the US. The defendants include Vladimir Tsastsin, 31; Timur Gerassimenko, 31; Dmitri Jegorov, 33; Valeri Aleksejev, 31; Konstantin Poltev, 28; and Anton Ivanov, 26. A seventh defendant, 31-year-old Russian national Andrey Taame, remains at large.”

Each defendant is charged with five counts of wire fraud and computer intrusion crimes, and Tsastisin faces an additional twenty-two counts of money laundering. If convicted, six of these geniuses are looking at 85 years. Tsastsin is looking at an additional ten years for each of the money laundering charges, which, if convicted on all counts, would make him 336 years old by the time he gets out – and they say that bad things don’t happen to bad people!

Some are calling it the biggest cyber-bust ever. Whether or not that’s true, it was still a pretty good day for the law enforcement and Internet security communities. Keep up the good work, and thanks for the early Christmas present!

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‘Operation Ghost Click’ Biggest Cyber-Bust Ever?

Spear phishing attackers in Texas have begun targeting drivers with a low-tech calling scheme designed to capture their credit card details. In the United States, traffic light enforcement frequently uses photographic cameras to document violations and identify offenders. When a driver runs a red light, a camera mounted nearby takes a picture of the driver while another camera takes a picture of the vehicle’s license plate, providing sufficient proof of an offense to issue a traffic citation. These traffic tickets are sent to the driver through the postal service, and a fine must be paid.

Unless you have received such a citation, or are very familiar with law enforcement procedures, you may not be aware of how this works, and that is what the phishers are counting on. Attackers use classic social engineering tactics, including:

1. Speaking with authority (impersonating a law enforcement officer),
2. Knowing something about the victim (their name, address, phone number, and license plate),
3. Playing upon the victim’s fears (in this case, of arrest),

to bilk their targets out of their credit card details. The attacker calls the victim, identifies themselves as a law enforcement officer, and informs the victim that they have an outstanding violation for a traffic offense which must be paid immediately, or risk arrest. The victims are offered the chance to pay their fine over the phone, using their credit card, which is exactly what the attacker is counting on them to do. If they are hesitant, the attacker becomes more aggressive and threatens them with arrest and increased fines. If the victim believes the call is legitimate, at that point they are willing to pay the “fine.” The victim provides the attacker their credit card details, including expiration date and CSC code, and thinks that their fine has been paid; problem solved.

The attacker of course now has all that they need to run up fraudulent charges until the credit card company detects suspicious activity, or the victim gets their next statement. If an attacker exercises restraint, they may have several weeks to use the compromised credit card before fraudulent activity is detected and the credit account is cancelled. They can use the account to make online purchases, or can sell the account details to other criminals who can use the information to create counterfeit cards.

This particular style phishing attack seems to have started in Texas and is beginning to spread to other locations. Because the attackers are able to get so much information about a potential victim by simply looking up most of the information online, and then driving by the victim’s home to get the license plate information, this attack is very effective, if somewhat limited by geography.

Readers are cautioned to always be suspicious of callers purporting to be law enforcement, creditors, banks, or other persons asking for personal details or asking for financial information. When in doubt hang up, and find the contact information on line to verify things. Remember, it is relatively easy to fake Caller-ID information, so do not rely upon what your phone displays to confirm a caller is who they say.

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Traffic Cams Latest Low-Tech Phishing Bait

Phishing scams are more popular than ever. Here’s a look at the latest phishing news for September:

1. Romanian Authorities Cracking Down on Phishing

2. Mitsubishi Hit By Spear Phishing Attack

3. Over 400 Go Daddy Sites Pummeled by Phishers

4. Melbourne Bank’s Twitter Feed Hijacked By Phishers

5. New Phishing Scam Targets University of Delaware Students

If you know of a story we missed or have something to say about one of the above, leave a comment and let us know what’s on your mind!

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September Phishing Roundup

However, since spam is entirely reliant on electronic communications, it can easily be tracked and studied. By collecting data from anti-spam tools and filters those tasked with fighting the spam menace can put together information that not only helps them discover trends, but helps the end user gain the all important education that so many professionals feel is the best way to attack the problem of spam.

So, if you are one of those who wish to better educate yourself, or better educate others, read on.

Trends in the subject lines

One of the easiest ways that end users can identify spam is through the content of the message itself. Starting with the subject line.

Spammers understand the need to entice victims into opening the email by using an intriguing subject line. To do this they either try to scare the recipient with a warning message or instill curiosity by using a short, non-descriptive subject.

In early August spammers took a more retro approach using a subject line stating that a package from UPS, FedEx or DHL could not be delivered. More recently the following subject lines have become popular:

• One that simply reads “Changelog”
• One that states the email contains an end of the month statement requiring immediate attention
• One that claims to have come from a company’s internal accounts department
• A warning that the recipient is being notified of traffic charges
• Those promising adult content

Where is spam coming from?

It is no secret that most spam originates from developing countries. While the targets may be the inboxes of those living in the United States, Great Britain and Canada, they rarely come from these countries.

The top ten originators of spam messages are:

1. India – 15.6%
2. Indonesia – 11.7%
3. Brazil – 9.2%
4. Peru – 6%
5. Ukraine – 5.8%
6. Korea 3.6%
7. Colombia 3.6%
8. Taiwan – 3.2%
9. Italy – 3%
10. Thailand – 2.1%

Spam as a marketing tool

When people think of spam they often think of its use as an advertising medium. For years people have used different messaging systems to generate interest in their products. By category, the most commonly advertised products/services from the past month are:

1. Pharmaceuticals and medical services – 45.7%
2. Financial services – 20.6%
3. Adult content – 5.8%
4. Computers – 5.5%
5. Education – 4.3%
6. Travel – 1.7%
7. Gambling – 0.9%
8. Interior design – 0.7%
9. Surveys – 0.3%
10. Electronics and gadgets – 0.3%

Email attachments and spam

While marketing is commonly associated with spam, many spammers realize that the profit from their trade comes from other revenue streams.

Infecting computers with malware can yield much higher returns for spammers as these infected computers can be controlled as zombies or botnets, deliver scareware in the form of fake anti-virus software or simply send passwords and financial information back to a database.

Ever wonder what it is that infects so many computers? Take a look at the malware that was frequently sent via email during the month of August:

1. Trojan-Spy.HTML.Fraud.gen
2. Email.Worm.Win32.Mydomm.m
3. Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Deliver.II
4. Trojan.Win32.Yakes.bss
5. Trojan.Win32.Yakes.bwb
6. Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Injector.azq
7. Trojan-Downloader.Win32.FraudLoad.ibu
8. Trojan.Win32.Yakes.bqc
9. Trojan.Win32.Yakes.btp
10. Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Injector.bvw

Phishing

Phishing still remains a popular reason for people to send spam. The number of messages that can be considered phishing attempts has been increasing steadily.

The list of websites targeted by phishing scams covers a broad range of sites with online shopping, financial services, social networking, online gaming and even the US government represented:

1. PayPal – 35.91%
2. eBay – 10.17$
3. Habbo – 9.77%
4. Facebook – 8.67%
5. Orkut – 6.03%
6. Santalander – 3.19%
7. Google – 2.84%
8. RuneScape – 2.62%
9. Halifax – 2.37%
10. Internal Revenue Service – 1.94%

Even though the numbers in each of these lists represents only one month out of the year they show us two things: spam remains a serious threat that continuously needs to be addressed, and with the scope of the various threats changing from month to month education regarding spam is more important than ever.

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A Look Inside Spam’s Numbers

The purists may suggest that we should never have made things smaller. They might even postulate that the age of innocence is over, and they would probably be right; but a new age is just beginning, and the dinosaur-sized PC that sits on your desk is now just that: a dinosaur. The ‘Big Ol’ Beast,’ as I like to call mine, sits there and stares at me sometimes, seemingly pleading with me: “pay attention to me!” “Use me!” it begs. “Bigger is better!” it pouts.

I just chuckle and Swype my finger across a shimmering sheet of Gorilla Glass, giggling like a school girl when a word is transposed into the message I’m composing, without my finger ever leaving the virtual keyboard.  Holding a fully functional computer in the palm of my hand is surreal and downright unbelievable, especially when I think about my first computer, an Atari 400 with a flat membrane keyboard, 4 Kilobytes of RAM, and the ability to display a whopping 256 different colors onscreen simultaneously. The wonderment I felt while pounding out (literally – you had to press hard on those keys) games in Atari BASIC seems like only yesterday, but the tech world is a time machine and I’ve been transported into the 21st century – where smaller is better, and just when you thought it was safe to download that new Sudoku game for your shiny new mobile device, you should think again. For as our tech gets smaller, so too does the world we live in.

“Mr. Data – Engage”

Allow me to dispense with a formality: it is Android of which I speak. I’m not going to get into a lengthy debate here, but I’m dismissing the iPhone and iOS from this discussion. While there are many millions who would vehemently disagree with me, I believe the Android OS, and the phones that support it, to be vastly superior to Apple’s offerings – and it appears there are many millions who would agree with me. As a developer who strongly believes in sharing over hoarding, I’m an open-source guy and always have been.

The problem with open-source is that while it promotes the highly admirable philosophies of collaboration, sharing, and (often) freeness, it also sends a message to the lowlifes and scum of the earth. You know the types: those who will scam little old grandmothers out of their life savings. The despicable cross-section of society that often makes me ashamed to admit I’m part of that society. The scammers and spammers – the pond-scum phishermen, as I like to call them.

Security Breach

Herein lies part of the problem: society just can’t turn down something that’s free. If the Android OS has one significant problem, it’s that its open-source nature allows anybody to put free or advertising-supported content on the Android Market. It’s no secret that Google has had their share of problems with previously valid applications being reupped to the Market, replete with all sorts of security exploits. And while it seemed strange to me to install a firewall and antivirus software on my phone, in my mind it was a pure necessity and the first thing I did when I set up my phone. (Note: this is where I tip my hat to Apple’s closed, often oppressive, approach to its marketplace. Oppressive or not, I never sensed a security threat to my iPhone).

Spam Magnet

That device in your pocket is infinitely more dangerous than anything you ever plugged a keyboard and mouse into. The open-source feeling and the sense that you’re holding a teeny-tiny little PC in the palm of your hand provides a false sense of security, one that turns your phone into a spam magnet. It’s easy to forget, especially if you’re not an IT professional, that not all spam filters are created equal. Indeed, the very nature of mobile devices means we use them on the go, making that device in your pocket a spam attack waiting to happen.

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Bigger is Better: Why Your Pocket is Filled with Spammy Goodness

Just recently spammers have again taken advantage of the current economic situation by sending emails out that pose as a warning that credit cards have been going unpaid.

According to recent reports a junk email scam has been launched that delivers a Trojan downloader that works to install phony antivirus software, or scareware, on the victim’s computer.

Recipients of this type of spam receive an email addressed simply to client and contains multiple spelling and grammatical errors in addition to referring to the recipient as YOU throughout the message. All the while, no reference to a specific bank is made.

The context of the message explains that the recipient has a credit card whose payment is one week overdue and references the card’s supposed limit, customer number and date when the payment was supposed to be made. Further on, the email claims that a 25 dollar fine along with finance fees will be charged to the account if a payment is not received within two days. Attached to the message is a zipped file that the email message claims is the credit card statement.

Should the recipient fall for this scam and actually download and unzip the file they find the payload file disguised as an Adobe PDF by using the icon so often seen with this type of file.

Over the years we have seen spammers try to entice victims to open their emails by using current events:

• Osama bin Laden captured!
• Osama hanged!
• We could settle your IRS debt now
• help for japan 8.9 earthquake!
• Fw: Japan Earthquake  – News Alert #1
• EARTHQUAKE HELP
• [LetUsPray] Additional Prayer for Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami victim
• Don’t let them foreclose!
• Homes given away

Of course as Google + invitations are sought after by anxious users, spam that promises membership into this exclusive beta test will also be used more and more as a way to draw potential victims into their scams. As these scams make the news, people become aware of what to look out for. The key is finding ways to mitigate these types of threats before they become common knowledge.

Preventing your users from falling victim

While malware of this type does not steal information through keystroke loggers or any other type of spyware, it can cause disruptions in service as network and desktop resources are used up by the program running constantly in the background and keeping an Internet connection open.

Teaching users to look out for things that identify a message as spam not only helps keep your network free of malware but it also helps fight spam over all as users who understand how to identify this type of email are less likely to open these messages at home.

Deploying a filtering solution that addresses file types and the body of the message can help immensely when it comes to keeping malware from being delivered to your users via email.

Coupling perimeter defenses with a good malware protection solution should keep infections like these from disrupting your computer services for existing threats, but antivirus alone will not do the trick as zero-day exploits are used to beat these defenses.

When you take a look at this newest attempt by cybercriminals it further proves that while spam, as we have come to think of it, may be seeing lower levels than the past, it is in no way something that we should stop worrying about. As I stated, email is going to always be one of the preferred delivery methods for malware and failing to secure against the threats that are delivered this way will continue to leave organizations vulnerable to attack.

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Unpaid Credit Card Notifications Linked to Spam

Recent activity indicates a significant reduction in spam levels, but no one should find comfort in this news. Spammers are making it personal, a new report from Cisco suggests, and at fault may be the law enforcement community for taking down the likes of Rustock and other botnets.

If email spam is a recurring nightmare from which you cannot seem to wake, read on. At the half year mark of 2011, some seemingly good news has poked its head over the horizon, with the promise of a brighter future. Unfortunately, the news isn’t all good; in fact, like spammers, it’s a little deceiving.

According to a new (June 2011) report published by Cisco Security Intelligence Operations (SIO) entitled “Email Attacks: This Time It’s Personal,” cybercriminals are dumping the ‘throw it against the wall and see if it sticks’ approach of indiscriminate spam, so much so that Cisco’s reports the, “annualized cybercrime business activity caused by mass, indiscriminate email attacks has declined by more than half.” The report goes on to state that the volume of overall random spam in the past year has declined by more than 80 percent, a figure that sounds a little on the high side, but no one can deny that spam volumes have dipped since the Rustock Botnet takedown in March.

Cisco SIO reports that the financial impact of this decline is significant.

“Cisco SIO estimates that the cybercriminal benefit resulting from traditional mass email-based attacks has declined more than 50 percent: from US$1.1 billion in June 2010 to $500 million in June 2011 on an annualized basis.”  

The direct impact of spam emails is even greater, down from 300 billion spam messages a day in June 2010 to 40 billion a day in June 2011.

Generally speaking, people continue to be smart enough to recognize a scam when they see one, but interestingly enough, those who aren’t are getting taken for more money. While Cisco SIO reports that the average user continues to be smart enough not to click that link, resulting in low user conversion rates (the amount of people who actually end up getting fleeced), that this figure “is partially offset by increases in the average user spending on conversions.” Cisco SIO attributes this increase in the spam artists using personalization tools, better-crafted scams and more effective malicious attacks, and reports that the level of personal information being divulged has resulted in larger paydays for the scammers.

So how much does an errant click cost? $250, according to the report. Cisco SIO explains the methodology used in arriving at this figure:

“This amount is in line with the low-end estimate of recent publicly disclosed scams and malicious attacks. For instance, in June 2011, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a scam email directing recipients to send $350 to obtain a Clearance Certificate or else legal action would be taken against the recipient.”

Now for the bad news:  even though random email spam has experienced a large decline, the amount of money being made by the scammers has quadrupled. Using the estimates explained above, Cisco SIO reports that “scams and malicious attacks (as a sub-category of mass attacks) have grown from US$50 million to US$200 million over the last year on an annualized basis.”

Oh, the irony!

In what feels like a ‘why did they kick the hornets’ nest?’ moment, the Cisco SIO report explains how, in the past year, the face of global cybercrime has morphed into something different, and quite possibly, more dangerous.  “Starting in 2010 and continuing into 2011, the criminal ecosystem has been changing dramatically. Law enforcement authorities and security and industry organizations worldwide have been collaborating to shut down or limit the largest spam-sending botnets and their associates. SpamIt, a large spam-sending affiliate network, ceased operations in October 2010 after its database was leaked and Russian police pressed charges against its owner. Major botnets were severely curtailed or even shut down, including Rustock, Bredolab, and Mega-D.” The end result? “By disrupting the financial and technical business models of key cartels,” Cisco SIO reports, “threat volumes have declined in favor of more lucrative activities.”

Oh, the humanity! If what this report states is true (and it sure sounds about right), then by deposing the former ruler – the incessant glut of email-pushing online pharmacies, instant university degrees, Internet casinos, and secret fortunes waiting to be smuggled out of some foreign country – in its place the law enforcement community has established a new despot: the smarter, more focused scammer!

Evolutionary Change and Survival of the Craftiest

In fact, Cisco SIO reports:

“as part of the evolution of the criminal ecosystem, [the growing number of scams and malicious] attacks are becoming highly focused.”

Scammers are taking greater care in their approach as they carry out schemes designed to rob people of their hard-earned Benjamins. They’re taking to other means – such as SMS, social media like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, the tried-and-true telephone scam, and even  eBook readers – and they “are choosing their targets with greater care, using personalized information such as a user’s geographical location or job position.” Examples of these scams, Cisco SIO reports, are:

• SMS financial fraud scams to specific locales
• Email campaigns that use URL shortening services
• Social media scams, where the criminal befriends a user or group of users for financial gain

Spearphishing is on the rise and has experienced its own evolution, Cisco SIO states:

“Spearphishing attacks are aimed at a specific profile of users, often high-ranking organizational users who have access to commercial bank accounts. Spearphishing attacks are typically well crafted; they use contextual information to make users believe they are interacting with legitimate content.”

If the cyber scammers are getting smarter, then it’s imperative that we, too, evolve. Cyber criminals made $150 million this year from spear phishing, according to Cisco, and that kind of return on investment speaks for itself. Spam won’t go away, ever. But like a nasty super virus that evolves and mutates into an antibiotic-resistant strain, spam marches on, even if it’s only to the beat of a new drum.

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Spam Reduced, Targeted Attacks on the Rise: Cisco

Robert Soloway, the spammer who made $20,000 a day back in the 1990s and was forced to pay $17 million in civil judgments, made it back into the news cycle when he was recently quoted as saying  that in current times

“(spamming is) not something financially feasible for anyone to even consider”

only months after his release from the Federal Correctional Institute in Oregon for his hand in violating the CAN-SPAM Act.

Over the years, we have seen the takedown of quite a few infamous spammers. So many that we have forgotten some of the pioneers and true dregs of cyber-society. Let’s see how many of this list you remember, or if you can think of any that can be added.

Dave Rhodes

The author of the famous MAKE.MONEY.FAST chain letter that made the rounds in the late 80s.  Legend has it that the letter was uploaded as a text file on a BBS in 1987 and then worked its way around until 1994 when it really became big.

The nature of this scam was that the recipient was instructed to send $1 to six different people via Paypal. Upon doing so, the recipient’s name would be placed on the list to receive money from others, and so on.

The true identity of Dave Rhodes has never been established.

Oleg Nikolaenko

The infamous King of Spam is currently awaiting trial in a detention facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for violating the CAN-SPAM Act after being arrested by the FBI in 2009.

Messages advertising counterfeit Rolex watches, herbal supplements and pharmaceuticals was the spam of choice for the 24 year old who was also credited with running the Mega-D botnet.

Davis Wolfgang Hawke

The press called him the spam Nazi because he not only made money from spam, but also use it to spread messages to bolster membership in his neo-Nazi groups.

Hawke started Amazing Internet Products with Brad Bournival in 2003 and the two began grossing roughly $500,000 per month advertising for a Yohimbe product called Pinacle.  He has also been linked to the famous Time Travel Spammer, Robert Todino.

In 2004 AOL was awarded a $12.8 million judgment against Hawke for sending unwanted emails to its subscribers. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Richard Colbert

After searching AOL profiles for keywords like multilevel marketing or business opportunity this Miami based “businessman” would spam the profiles he found to advertise his spam business charging around $900 for one million addresses. In a 2003 interview, Colbert claimed that because he honored unsubscribe requests he was a legitimate marketer.

Colbert retired from spamming in 2003 and was removed from the Spamhaus Project’s list of prolific spammers.

Eddie Davidson

Davidson was an active spammer between the years 2002 to 2007 under the business name Power Promoters. His company, along with several sub-contractors, would advertise the usual gambit of merchandise and pharmaceutical until he was indicted in 2007 for violating the CAN-SPAM Act.

Spam, however, turned out to be the least damaging of his crimes.

After serving a portion of his 21 month sentence and paying over $700,000 in restitution, Davidson was released from prison only to be found dead along with his three year old daughter and wife in a murder-suicide. His 16 year old daughter was also found shot but survived. His 7 month old son was the only member of the family that was left unharmed.

Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel

A modern day Bonnie and Clyde, these two lawyers posted the first massive commercial Usenet spam in 1994. Their Green Card lottery scam came shortly after the National Science Foundation lifted the ban on commercialization on the Internet.

The two went on to advertise their craft both spamming for hire and with a book titled How to Make a Fortune on the Information Superhighway: Everyone’s Guerrilla Guide to Marketing on the Internet and Other On-line Services.

In 1997 Canter was disbarred by the Tennessee Supreme Court for his participation in illegal advertising practices.

Bonus – Gary Thuerk

Gary earns the honor of the “Father of Spam” since he is the one who sent out the first unsolicited mass emailing back in 1978. His target, 600 ARPANet members. Yet while he really didn’t do too much damage compared to some of the others, he did pave the way.

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Five Infamous Spammers You May Have Forgotten About

Cyberattacks are a growing security threat. Hackers and scammers are quickly moving beyond the traditional types of attacks such as phishing and browser hijacking. They’re getting much more sophisticated and some of the newest threats could threaten the country’s very infrastructure. Here is look at the top 4 largest threats right now.

1. SMS Attacks

As the recent incident involving a suicide bomber who was prematurely killed when a spam text set off the bomb she was carrying, mobile phones are becoming a more popular way to distribute malware and more. Terrorists can detonate bombs using a text message and a hacker can infiltrate your corporate network in the same way simply by sending a malicious text that downloads malware when opened. It’s important for companies to have a strict policy in place regarding texting to protect themselves.

2. Infrastructure Hacking

Last year the Stuxnet worm was unleashed and targeted Siemens SCADA systems, which are used by many major manufacturing and utility companies. Now a new threat is targeting so-called smart grids, which are used by power companies to monitor their customers’ power usage over a digital network. The problem is that these smart grids, and the smart meters they are connected to, have vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to get into the grid and cause potentially widespread power disruptions.

3. Social Network Spoofing

In this attack a hacker sets up a fake Facebook page for a legit company. Users join, sometimes under the lure of discounts or coupons from what they think is a the real company, and then have their personal info stolen after being tricked into signing up for more discounts. Sometimes hackers do this using fake sites set up to look just like the real thing. It’s spear phishing taken to a whole new level.

4. Cyberstalking/Bullying

This isn’t just affecting kids and teens. It’s becoming a growing problem among adults thanks to the exploding popularity of social networks and the trend toward the digital workplace. Sometimes these attacks have corporate sabotage as their goal, setting their sights on a particular employee or company in an attempt to ruin reputations and even steal company info. I’ve been the target of such attacks and it is crucial to do three things to protect yourself and your company. First, be stingy with the personal info you choose to share, never respond to the attack, no matter how badly you want to defend yourself or your company, and save all posts, emails and other communications. If physical threats are made, it becomes a federal crime.

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4 Increasing Threats in Cybercrime

When a database containing email addresses is stolen from the world’s largest email marketing company, you can be assured that a majority of us will soon see the amount of spam we receive increase. While spam has become an annoyance to most of us who find ourselves forced to delete the never ending flow of junk mail from our inboxes, spam can have some pretty devastating effects to people who fall prey to the scams, phishing attacks and identity thefts that so often accompany these email messages.

But who actually falls for these email scams nowadays? With so much education and information out there to help protect people from becoming a victim why is it that people still have no problem sending thousands of dollars to someone they have never met before in their lives?

In a recent study four major universities: University of Buffalo, Brock University, Ball State University, and University of Texas in Arlington launched a phishing attack against a group of users to find out the psychology behind why people fall victim to the promises made in spam emails. They explained:

“Our results indicate that people process most phishing emails peripherally and make decisions based on simple cues embedded in the email. Interestingly, urgency cues, i.e., threats and warnings, in the email stimulated increased information processing, short-circuiting the resources available for attending to other cues that could potentially help detect the deception.”

Falling victim, they went on to say, has nothing to do with the competency level of the user. Instead, a user more comfortable with technology may be more likely to fall victim to a phishing attack because their findings suggest that, “the habitual patterns of media use combined with high levels of email load have a strong and significant influence on individuals’ likelihood to be phished.”

For a scientific answer, that makes perfect sense. People are usually in a rush to respond to emails within a certain timeframe so they don’t really read everything as carefully as they should. Since not all spam is as easy to spot as the 419 Nigerian scam, you can see how easy it is for someone to click a malicious or bogus link that collects their login credentials.

But that doesn’t explain why people are so willing to believe that they were the lucky winner of a foreign lottery. Like the Nigerian scam, this one should be easy to spot. Unfortunately we still see this type of spam on a daily basis which means only one thing, it still works.

To this the answer can be found in one word, greed. People fall victim to email scams because they want the riches promised to them. They allow greed to blind their judgment. Even people who are thought to be responsible and knowledgeable fall victim to these scams when money comes into play.

Professor Stephen Lea of the University of Exeter was quoted as saying,

“Modern economic life is complicated and we have to use all sorts of short cuts and rules of thumb to navigate our way through it. Scammers take advantage of those necessary, everyday processes. This means that no-one is immune to being scammed.”

That quote is pretty powerful. When people have to rely on financial short cuts just to get by, the playing field really tilts in favor of the scammer who is offering that quick and easy path to riches.

To avoid falling prey to scams that are sent in spam emails we need to change the way we think, especially after the recent attack on Epsilon. Since the email addresses stolen can be linked to stores, financial institutions and even hotels the spammers have plenty of chum and bait on hand to throw out there.

• Avoid clicking on links embedded in emails. If you receive an email from your financial institution regarding account information or logins navigate to their site using your browser. Anyone with access to the stolen database can easily see that your email address is connected to a particular bank to make things look more credible.
• Watch out for “deals”. People shop on the Internet for bargains and receive emails almost daily for some type of money saving deal. Watch out for suspect money saving offers that take you to malicious websites or cloned sites.
• Keep up with your malware scans. You may never see it coming but clicking on a link or opening a file from a spammer may infect your computer with malware that will steal from you at a later date.
• Be smart with your personal information. Don’t simply trust a company that emails you asking for important information (remember they will play on your sense of urgency). If you think that an email request is legitimate, call the company and update the information over the phone.
• Take your time when opening emails. Don’t be in a rush and don’t go through the motions when reading your mail messages. You may be busy, you may be trying to empty your inbox but you need to remember that attackers know all to well that when we get into a routine, we get careless and that is when they will try to strike.

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Why People Fall For Email Scams

Compromised computers spew spam.

In a bit of good news this holiday season, botnet activity has dropped, and those that are still highly active appear to be concentrating on spamming affiliate programs and selling replica watches, none of which appears to be Christmas themed.

The campaigns that are taking advantage of the holiday season are smaller campaigns being run by unknown spam groups. Experts say this may be a result of the botnet shutdowns that took place earlier this year, especially Bredolab, and the wish of the remaining ones to stay under the radar to avoid detection. Only Cutwail and Rustock appear to be still pumping out spam right now and appear to be focused on a campaign of DHL themed spam that renews itself every 3-4 days.

There’s also another campaign that arrives looking like a message from an unknown admirer who confesses they have a crush on the recipient. They posted some hot photos and want you to go to a website to see them. If the recipient follows the link they find themselves asked to sign up and verify their email. Once they do they find out they’ve signed up at an adult dating site that specializes in helping married people have affairs. It’s obviously another form of affiliate spam.

There is still some holiday themed spam out there, mostly fake e-cards and ads for male enhancement products, but most of it doesn’t mention Christmas at all. The next major holiday is Valentine’s Day and it will be interesting to see if holiday spam resumes then. It’s typically a popular time for the male enhancement, porn, and designer replica spammers to start campaigns.

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Botnets Taking Holiday Break?

The 419 scam has been around for many years and if you have an email address chances are you’ve gotten at least one. By sending messages claiming to be lawyers representing long lost relatives who’ve died and left a huge inheritance, exiled family members of royal families from obscure countries, dying missionaries, officials from foreign lotteries and other individuals who need help transferring millions to a U.S. bank, the scammers behind these spam messages have snared both CEOs and ordinary people in their webs. They count on their messages hitting gullible people who let their greed overrule their common sense.

No matter the message, the scam is always the same. They either need your help transferring their fortune to an American bank or want to award you money they claim you won or inherited. If you bite, they’ll ask for small processing fee, and then another. Then they’ll claim they need more money to bribe officials or get copies of important paperwork. The minute you refuse to pay they disappear. Some people have poured their whole life savings into these scams and some have even traveled overseas to get the money they still believe they are due. Sadly, this has resulted in kidnappings, disappearances, and in a few cases, murder.

There’s no word on if or when Diamreyan’s accomplice will be tried. Diamreyan was also ordered to pay his victims $1 million in restitution but prosecutors admit the chances of that happening are slim.

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Man Gets 12 Years in Prison for Nigerian Spam Scam

Once installed it opens DHCP and DNS clients along with a network share and port in order to communicate with its command server and presumably adds the system to a botnet.

What makes the malware particularly dangerous is that once the malware is detected and removed, it leaves the legitimate app it infected without its auto update feature, and that could leave it vulnerable to future attacks if it’s left unable to download critical updates. The user would have to completely re-download and reinstall the affected software, and likely wouldn’t know they had to.

Since many software apps like Adobe, Java, Flash, and Windows itself receive near constant updates and patches, having the update function removed could be disastrous. Scammers have exploited Flash, and Java many times and malicious PDFs are a popular distribution method. 56% of all malware currently comes from malicious PDFs. Experts recommend disabling Javascript when visiting unfamiliar websites to help protect yourself, but an even better idea is to avoid visiting unfamiliar websites all together. It’s also a good idea to manually check your apps on a regular basis to make sure they’re properly updated.

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New Malware Has a Damaging Twist

This new kind of scam brings the average cybercriminal over $10 million a month. Researchers have found a definite relationship between the economy and cybercrime. Stock market declines and other economic crisis almost always result in a surge in scams and spam. That’s bad news for all of us if the current economic forecast continues to worsen. Already new campaigns exploiting Citizen’s Bank, the 2012 Olympics and the Better Business Bureau have been detected, and despite the recent suit filed against the makers of the infamous and much hated “Antivirus XP” malware, similar rogue programs continue to be distributed via spam and popups. Researchers and security experts expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future.

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Even Scammers Are Affected By Credit Crisis

It’s expected this won’t be the last phishing scam exploiting the current economic crisis. Remember that banks never ever ask for personal info via email, so delete any emails asking for it!

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Phishing Scam Exploits Troubled Bank