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‘Hailstorm’ Spam Technique from ‘Snowshoe’ Spammers


Spammers are continuously evolving their attack methods to adapt with the increasingly better anti-spam defenses to sustain themselves in the cyber world. Accordingly, a spam method called the Hailstorm spam was recently detected when security researchers from Cisco Talos found the technique circumventing cyber safeguards while at the same time disseminating malicious software through phishing assaults. Scmagazine.com posted this dated December 19, 2016.

Spammers who are using the 'hailstorm' method are called "snowshoe."

The tactic involves dispatching massive amounts of spam mails in extremely short time-periods. These are dispatched through Internet Protocol addresses used in different parts of the globe while the intention is to evade security detections.

The snowshoe campaigners attempt at bypassing spam filters through the dispatch of bulk e-mail relying on numerous Internet Protocol addresses whilst each IP address based spam amount remains low. The objective in this approach is attempting at evading volume-based spam filters which is done via sending the bulk messages onto an enormous network of PCs.

In the hailstorm spam attack, the spammers distribute a massive amount of messages within very short span of time. According to Jaeson Schultz, David Rodriguez and Jakob Dohrmann, security researchers at Cisco Talos, a few hailstorm spam assaults complete quite around the same while when the fastest conventional spam filters eventually manage responding to a spam feat.

The researchers in an alert note write that albeit the above kind of spam attacks in general are an increasing nuisance than pose any real threat, still they can end up delivering drive-by downloads, creating ID-theft, executing fraud and performing business e-mail hijack. The majority of the previous spam attacks identified, at first were utilized for propagating, actually fake, flashlights, home-surveillance devices, supplements for diet and so on like products advertised on television.

Usually among activities of cyber-crime, which attract greater attention over spam, malware distribution is the most prominent. As a result, the hailstorm spam proves a more favored activity for cyber-crooks, says Schultz. He adds that although it'll be rather fast to catch hailstorm campaigns still they'll actually be able to hijack sufficient victims for churning good bucks.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/22/2016

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