New Spam Technique Beats Anti-spam Filters

According to security researchers, spammers in a new technique are concentrating to send regulated bursts of junk e-mails in order to surpass filters instead of employing botnets for dispatching an identical phishing spam mail for months-over-months.

To cite an example - during the 2nd week of September 2009, a certain e-mail posing as a message from the IRS started to flood inboxes across the USA. It suggested that recipients open a given file containing an online form to solve a query relating to underreported income.

When the form was downloaded, it enabled the perpetrators to control the user's PC and distribute the same e-mail to all the user's friends. The hijacked PCs were subsequently added to a botnet, so that more spam could be blasted for stealing people's sensitive information.

The attack lasted for one day, but, according to Henry Stern security researcher at Cisco, this technique of bursting spam through the hit-and-run trick works so rapidly that there is hardly any time to issue an alert before the damage occurs. Owing to such unexpected blasts, which Stern states surpass slow anti-spam filters, it is extremely vital that users look out for e-mails which try to exploit current trends, as reported by Switched on September 17, 2009.

In 2009, the Internet has been infested with innumerable bursts of junk e-mails. Some e-mails pretended to deal with shipping errors by FedEx and UPS. Others promised news videos/articles regarding the swine influenza pandemic and Michael Jackson's death.

When a computer is infected, it would immediately start copying the spam to blast many more computers. Sam Masiello, Director of Threat Management, McAfee's MX Logic Messaging Security Section, said - this spreads the tactic and provides the botmaster with added systems for leveraging more spam bursts, as reported by Usatoday on September 16, 2009.

Meanwhile, security researchers state that spam bursts based on holidays and sporting events are expected to continue. E-mail users should maintain up-to-date antivirus systems, load essential software updates and use powerful spam filters. Spam threats can be combated despite their cyclical nature, the researchers concluded.

Related article: New Zealand Releases Code To Reduce Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 10/12/2009