SMEs warned against spamming as complaints rise 88%
by Kerry ButtersA UK web hosting provider has warned businesses against spamming customers, as they have seen complaints rise by 88% over the past year. Fasthosts Internet Ltd say more and more consumers are complaining that they have had unsolicited newsletters and marketing emails sent to them and advise small companies not to “cut corners”. Whilst the [...]
September 7, 2011
Twitter spam on the up
by Kerry ButtersA report from Naked Security, the blog of security firm Sophos warns users of continuing phishing attacks carried out on Twitter users. The attacks are designed to reap passwords from victims and apparently often come in the form of a message from friends. The latest threat is similar to the ones we’ve seen a spate [...]
July 11, 2011
Google says sorry for the spam
by Jan HarrisNew social network Google+ has been sending out spam invitations to the service after its notification system ran out of disk space. This caused the system to continue to try to send the emails, over and over again, for around 80 minutes. Demand for the service, which is still being tested by invited users, has [...]
June 1, 2011
Cyber crime slowing says McAfee
by Jan HarrisIn its latest threat report, security firm McAfee reported that the efforts of the police and security companies to combat cyber crime are starting to pay off. The report mentions several successful police raids which have taken down botnets and uncovered fraud and money laundering operations. This has been made possible by improved communication and [...]
May 26, 2011
Spammers find new way to evade spam filters
by Jan HarrisSecurity specialist Symantec has identified a new technique which spammers are using to escape detection by anti-spam products. The company has identified a large domain parking service being used spammers. Domain parking services allow companies or individuals to register an Internet domain name without using it for services. This allows them to use the domain [...]
March 17, 2011
Rustock silent – for now
by Jan HarrisThe notorious Rustock botnet has gone quiet again, just as it did over Christmas, according to security blogger Bryan Krebs. As a result spam volumes have fallen for now, but Rustock’s Christmas lull only lasted into early January, after which its spam campaign quickly returned to normal levels, so it remains to be seen if [...]
January 14, 2011
Spam levels rise after Christmas lull
by Jan HarrisSpam levels plummeted over Christmas and into January but predictions that this was a temporary respite have proved true. Between 25 December and 9 January activity from major botnets, including Rustock, Lethic and Xarvester fell to negligible levels, but the botnets are now waking up again. MessageLabs Intelligence recorded a 98 per cent increase in [...]
January 11, 2011
UK fifth for spam
by Jan HarrisThe US is still the worst offender for sending spam, while the UK remains in fifth place, according to the latest report from Sophos. Sophos attributed the US’s inglorious first place to the large number of compromised computers in the country. It seems that many US users aren’t up to speed on security as 36 [...]
December 9, 2010
WikiLeaks spam carries malware
by Jan HarrisSecurity firm Symantec has warned that an email attachment named ‘WikiLeaks’ harbours a virus that can steal passwords and other data. The virus, which is carried in a PDF attachment, is targeted at a government body according to a blog post by Symantec operations engineer Tony Millington. The email reads “the release of thousands of [...]