Ordbok for e-post søppel og e-post svindel
Det er mange begreper og forvirrende titler på forskjellige typer søppel-, svindel-, virus-epost, samt spionprogrammer. Vi har laget en list med definisjoner som gir deg et overblikk over potensielle trusler og gjør dem enklere å forstå. Du kan unngå mange av disse ulempene ved å bruke produktene fra SPAMfighter for å sikre din computer.
Addresse hamstrer
En adresse hamstrer er en robot som skanner eller "kryper" igjennom websider, internet nyhetsmagasiner, forum/grupper osv. på leiting etter alt som kan ligne en aktiv e-post adresse. Dette resulterer i store antall e-post adresser som vil bli brukt til utsendelse av e-post søppel, eller solgt til andre spammere.
Adware
Adware er programvare som har blitt installert på din computer uten at du er klar over det. Flere av de frie programmene som du laster ned fra Internet vil også installere skjulte programmer. Disse programmene inhenter informasjon om f.eks. din e-post adresse, hvilke websider du ser på og sender dette tilbake til annonsøren. I en målrettet utsendelse vil du motta popup annonseringer (selv om du ikke er koblet på Internet) og søppel meldinger.
Vedlegg
Et vedlegg er en fil som er sent sammen med en e-post melding, f.eks. hvis du inkluderer en fil med en utgående e-post. Vær forsiktig med vedlegg som du mottar. Vedleggene kan inneholde skadelige programmer, slik som virus og Trojanske hester. Hvis du mottar et vedlegg fra noen du ikke kjenner, kan du risikere at dette kan være en virus eller en Trojansk hest, som kan bli aktivisert når du klikker på vedlegget!
Backdoor (bakdør)
Backdoor (bakdør) er programmer som klarer å forbigå normale sikkerhetsprosedyrer og komme seg inn i datasystemet. Dette kan f.eks.være brukt av hackere, som gjør alt de kan for ikke å bli oppdaget. De kan gjøre store skader ved å infisere computerne til å ha fullstendig ekstern kontroll av systemet.
Bayesian filtrering
En statistisk tilnærming for å bestemme om meldingen er en søppel e-post eller ikke. Studiet er basert på sansynlige slutnings teknikker, som er en banebrytende fremstilling av den Engelske matematikeren Thomas Bayes. Bayesian filtrering krever imidlertid omfattende trening for å bære effektiv.
Blokkeringer
Blokkeringer er en liste i ditt spamfilter over personnavn, IP adresser, eller Url'er som du har nektet å motta e-post fra. Du kan blokkere personnavn, IP adresser eller Url'er med SPAMfighter -- last ned programmet her.
Svarteliste
En offentlig svarteliste som inneholder IP adresser som er kjent for å være kilder til søppelpost. Denne listen kan enkelt benyttes til å opprette en svarteliste i nettverket, som filtrerer ut e-post som kommer fra en av disse adressene. Dessverre inneholder denne listen også uskyldige e-post adresser, og kreerer derfor et stor antall feiltokninger.
Masseutsendelser
Masseutsendelse er en annen definisjon på søppelpost. Masseutsendels er post som består av store antall identiske meldinger (ofte reklame), som er sent til forskjellige navn. Se også spam og søppelpost. Du kan filtrere masseutsendelser med SPAMfighter - last ned programmet her.
Kjedebrev
Et kjedebrev er et brev som er sendt i sekvenser til mange personer. Ofte inneholder disse hyggelige hilsener, men også trusler hvis du ikke gjør slik som kjedebrevet sier. Dette får mange til å videresende e-posten "bare for å være sikker" at ikke skjer noen ulykke. Dette er ikke spam i sin vanligste form, men mange personer kategoriserer dette også som spam. Vær også oppmerksom på at denne type e-post inneholder store mengder med e-post adresser, som kan bli misbrukt hvis de kommer i feile hender.
Cookie
Cookier er små mengder av data som lagres i din computer av websiden du besøkte. Disse dataene er sendt tilbake til websiden av din nettleser hver gang du igjen besøker denne websiden. Cookier er brukt til å identifisere og vedlikeholde spesifikk informasjon om brukeren, f.eks. innholdet i handlekurvene. En "tracking cookie" er en cookie som holder oversikt over brukerens søkerutiner på Internet. De er typisk brukt for å styre data for markedsføring og annosering, men kan også brukt til å lage en mere detaljert profil, og bevegelsesmønster, på brukeren. F.eks. en tredje-parts cookie kan følge brukerens bevegelser over mange websider. Dette gir annonsøren mulighet til å fokusere annonseringen direkte til bruker's antatte preferanser.
Oppringing
En oppringer -- eller et oppringingsprogram -- er et program som bruker en computeren's modem til å koble seg på systemet uten eieren's samtykke. Intensjonen er normalt å inngå en svindel ved å ringe, eller få tilgang til tjenester som resulterer i uventede telefon kostnader. Denne aktivieten er også kjent som "Modem kidnapping".
DoS/DDoS Angrep
I et "denial-of-service" (Dos) angrep, vil angriperen forsøke å stanse hele systemet, vanligvis web serverne, ved å svekke båndbredden. Hvis serveren mottar en overveldende mengde av informasjon, kan den simpelhen stoppe å reagere. Et "distributed-denial-of-service" (DDoS) angrep oppstår når flere systemer samtidig lanserer angreper for å overdynge kapasiteten på båndvidden.
Utnytte
An Exploit is a piece of code that takes advantage of bugs, security holes or other vulnerabilities in a system to gain unauthorized access to the system. Normally the exploit takes advantage of specific software vulnerability, but in some cases it can open computers to total external control.
False negative
A false negative is when your anti-spam software fails to identify a spam message as spam.
False positive
A false positive is when your anti-spam software identifies a legitimate message as spam. SPAMfighter comes with an automatic "real mail" protection, which means no false-positives.
Flooding
Spam consisting of large numbers of messages sent to a single newsgroup, either as a mistake from a newbie, or as deliberate attempt to drown out the newsgroup. Also know as Vertical Spam.
Hackers
Computer users who attempt to gain unauthorized access to sites or break into computer systems. Hackers often steal information from companies i.e. mailing lists, and sell these to spammers for a fee. See also Script Kiddie.
Hash Buster
Hash Buster is a way for spammers to avoid getting their spam mail caught by spam filters - by inserting random generated content in each spam mail, often in the form of word-like patterns in the subject or content field, it will confuse spam-detecting software which looks for identical messages, because each wave of spam appear unique and individual to the filter.
Headers
Headers are used to identify the sender and recipient of a message. A Header is the small information line that will appear at the top of a mail.
Hijacking
Hijacking is an attack whereby an active, established session is intercepted by an attacker who wants to abuse your session. Hijacking can occur both via the Internet as well as locally, i.e. if a user leaves a computer unprotected making it possible for a spammer to pretend his mails are coming from someone else. See also Spoofing.
Honeypot
A system or network with known vulnerabilities which looks attractive to hackers, crackers, and other unwanted attacking guests. A honeypot serves no real purpose and have therefore no legitimate activity, so if someone tries to interact with it, it will most likely be unauthorized or malicious activity. The connection will be closely watched by honeypots admins who collect in-depth information that can expose new tactics and tools on how these unwanted guests work and can track them as well.
Joe Job
A Joe Job is the act of forging spam mail headers to make it look like it comes from someone whom the spammer will hurt. The victim will soon be flooded with bounces and angry replies.
Junk Mail
Junk email is unsolicited advertisements often selling something or providing link to commercial websites. See also Spam or Bulk mail. You can filter Junk mail with SPAMfighter - get it here.
Keylogger
A keylogger is a program that captures and records keyboard and/or mouse activity on a computer. Keyloggers often runs hidden in the background and either store the recorded keystrokes for later retrieval or transmit them to the keylogger administrator.
Mail Loop
A situation where one automated mail triggers another which again triggers the first mail to reply etc. thus creating an endless mail loop. This will cause high pressure on the mail servers.
Malware
Malware is short term for Malicious Software. A malicious program is designed to infiltrate an IT system without the owner's approval. The term generally refers to any software designed to cause damage, whether it's a virus, spyware, trojan horse etc.
Mortgage Mail
One of the fastest growing categories of spam. Spam mails are issued by "Lead generators" who sell the information they receive from spam mails, to well known lenders such as Ameriquest and Quicken loans etc. These companies are unaware of the origin of their leads, but often buys a "hot lead" for as much as up to 80$. You can filter Mortgage Mail with SPAMfighter - get it here.
Morph
To modify headers to avoid detection by automated software. Often the most common form of Morphing is to modify the "From:" line in an email.
Mousetrap
A mousetrap is a java-script that makes it difficult to leave a website. When the reader tries to leave, a window pops up back at the website and preventing the user from clicking "Back" from a website. Often used when an advertiser gets paid per person who clicks on the client's website.
Newsletters
A newsletter is a simple form of newspaper or information page that communicates to a target group. Newsletters are mostly legit, coming from a service the users might have been unaware that he or she accepted to get information from. The user is able to unsubscribe the Newsletters without any problems. Note: Always read the terms thorough when subscribing to a service with your email to find out weather or not they are allowed to send you newsletters of other information - and only submit and unsubscribe to services you know are legit, to prevent that you expose your email.
Nigerian Scam
Also known as 419 Scam. You receive an e-mail that seems to come from an official in Nigeria, asking you to help him transfer some money. This is a kind of spam that could - in the worst case - get you killed. In the best case, if you fall for one these criminals' spam mails, you will "just" lose your money. You can filter Nigerian scam mails with SPAMfighter - get it here.
Opt-in
Opt-in is the process of accepting to receive mail from a sender - newsletter, information etc. This is usually done when you subscribe to some sort of service, newsgroup or product. In some cases, double opt-in, you have to confirm your subscription from a verification email.
Opt-out
The process of unsubscribing a mail service or declining to receive future emails from a sender. Legit email marketers or newsletters services have an easy and clear way of opt-out.
Password Stealer
A password stealer is a program that captures passwords that's being typed on a computer. In contrast to a keylogger that captures every keyboard activity, the password stealer only captures passwords. It can save all kinds of passwords or be modified just to save passwords in specific programs or on certain websites. See also Keylogger.
Phishing
Phishing is a scam, although one of the newer ones, that tries to lure your hard-earned money right out of your wallet. And technically it's a well-done scam, which takes advantage of peoples trust in legal enterprises. You can filter Phishing mails with SPAMfighter - get it here.
Porn Spam
By fare the most burdening spam category. This form of spam advertises all forms of pornographic material. It is constantly getting more and more aggressive and changes forms and procedures often in the quest of driving traffic to their sites. You can filter Porn Spam with SPAMfighter - get it here.
Potent Spam
E-mails which advertise and promote products to help men with their sex life such as Viagra. It is however often fake drugs that are sold, some without effect and some cause potential health risk. You can block spam containing Potent Spam mails with SPAMfighter - get it here.
Ratware
Mass mailing virus and email software used by spammers, designed to send as much mail as possible in as short time as possible.
Robot
In Internet terms, a Robot is a program that is designed to automatically go out and explore the Internet for different purposes. This can also be called a worm or a crawler/webcrawler, spiders, worms, and can be used both to index content on the Internet, as Google crawlers do, or to garter other kind of information, such as email addresses.
Rootkit
A rootkit is a malicious program designed to take total control over a computer or IT system. The rootkit stands above system administrators, which means that not even the operating system is aware of its existence. Rootkits often fools the users to believe they are safe and install themselves as drivers or kernel modules. Once the rootkit has gained access, it can do pretty much everything since it has administrator rights, for example monitor traffic and keystrokes, attack other machines on the network or create backdoors into the system for hacker's use.
Script Kiddies
Script Kiddies use scripts or programs developed by others to search for weaknesses in computer systems and networks. Unlike a hacker, a script kiddie only uses existing techniques and hacking programs to carry out unauthorized computer break-ins, e.g. to spread mass mailer worms through e-mails, or create DoS attacks. See also Hacker.
Spam
Unsolicited e-mail sent to large numbers of people to promote products or services. Also called "Junk" or "Bulk" mail. We all see spam - unwanted mass-mails - in our mail-boxes every day. Spamfighter is an award winning Anti Spam software, used by millions of users worldwide. You can also be protected from spam by getting the free version of SPAMfighter here.
Spam traps
An email that exists with one purpose - to attract spam. Some website operators deploy such addresses to be harvested by spambots, and can thereby monitor and study spam attacks to this otherwise unused and uncirculated address.
Spambait
Invalid email addresses that are deliberately planted on a website with the expectations that they will be harvested by a spambot and thereby pollute the output and destroying the business for the spammers. It is even possible to place elements that trap spambots in loops or generate large amounts of invalid email addresses to counterstrike spammers even more.
Spambot
A computer program that is designed to visit or "crawl" random websites and newsgroups, while collecting or "harvesting" everything that looks like valid email addresses for inclusion on spam lists.
SPAMfighter
SPAMfighter is Europe's leading spam filter developer, providing spam protection across the globe for millions of home and business users. You can also become a SPAMfighter, try our Anti Spam software here.
Spamfilter
A spamfilter is software that filters all incoming mail and sorts them in what is normal mail and what seems like spam. Spamfilters can be deployed on the network where the spam will be detained before you download it (i.e. our SPAMfighter Mail Gateway, SPAMfighter exchange module or hosted spam filter) or on your computer where it will be detained after you download it (i.e. our Anti Spam Filter - get it here.).
Spammer
A spammer is a person who sends spam. Believe it or not, many people actually react on spam mails and some actually buy something from spam mails. Even though it is only a very small percentage of people who receive a spam mail who react to it, it is still a very lucrative business for most spammers. Some easy steps to prevent getting spam: 1. Install SPAMfighter Anti Spam Filter. 2. Never open or react to spam mails!
Spamnest
A company or a place that generates and allows the production and sending of spam.
Spamware
Spamware is any kind of software for spammers, i.e. robots, spiders, crawlers, harvesters etc. and also the software spammers use to send out mails.
Spider
A program designed to search the Internet. See also Robot.
Spim
Spam not only occurs by e-mail, but also by instant messaging like ICQ, Messenger and Skype. This phenomenon has been dubbed "Spim". Read more about Spim here.
Spoofing
Spoofing is when a spammer or scammer fakes his origin or pretends to be someone else i.e. of a sent mail, where the header is made to appear from someone other than who it really is. This is often the case when someone sends you either phishing mails, making it look like it came from a legitimate sender to try to trick you.
Spyware
Software that contains third-party software which is used to monitor the users behavior. The user is unaware of the installation of this software which often takes form as a Trojan Horse, monitoring your web browser activity and sending the information to the author of the spyware. A powerful tool to datamine user activity and collect marketing information. Remove Spyware and other malicious software with SPYWAREfighter - get it here.
Stock mail
This is a scam, where spam emails hype shares of a company of which the spammer has previously acquired stocks. If sufficient people react to the spam mail and start placing orders on the specific stocks, the market value of the stock rises, and the spammers can sell with a profit. This is also known as "Pump and Dump". You can filter Stock mail by using SPAMfighter - get it here.
Tricklers
Tricklers are small hidden programs that can download and reinstall malware that has been removed from a computer. The trickler makes the download run slowly in the background so it is less noticeable. These programs are typically used by spyware to silently restore components after the spyware has been removed.
Trojan Horse
A program that is disguised and installs code that can counteract security or opening access to you computer, thereby letting hackers in. It can also perform other tasks such as gathering identity-information to be abused. The name origins from the Trojan War, where Greek soldiers hid inside a large wooden horse, only to sneak out at night and attack the Trojans from the inside.
Unsolicited Commercial E-mail
See Spam.
Vertical Spam
See Flooding.
Virus
A computer virus is code designed to make additional copies of itself to other files and infect them, spreading from computer to computer typically without the users knowing. The term virus is often used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware - worms, trojan horses, rootkits, spyware, etc. Remove virus and other malicious software with VIRUSfighter - get it here.
Virus Mail
Virus mails are simply e-mails containing virus. Virus mails can be used to gather information for use to spammers, for example email addresses, or to pass on virus to other computers.
Web bug
Web bugs are methods for spammers to validate email addresses. A small graphic inserted in a spam mail, notifies the spammer when the messages is read or previewed. This is why we recommend that you disable the preview function in your SPAMfolder. This way you do not accidentally open a spam mail and verify your email. Web bugs are also known as Bacon URL.
White-hat
Refers to a person or organization that focuses on securing and protecting IT systems. (Black-hat is the opposite, i.e. a hacker, or someone who destroys systems or spreading viruses or spam.) If you want to be a White-hat and help out to fight spam, get the free Anti Spam Filter from SPAMfighter here.
Whitelist
A list of email addresses, IP addresses or domains that is trusted by a user and therefore approved be delivered, bypassing the spam filters.
Worm
Computer worms are programs designed to propagate constantly. They primarily spread on networks and almost always cause harm to the network, if only by consuming bandwidth. They might delete files, encrypt files or install backdoors in the infected computer to allow the creation of a "zombie" under control of the worm author. Unlike a virus, worms don't need to attach itself to an existing program.
Zombie
A zombie computer is a computer that has been hacked into, or taken over by hackers. Usually the owner is unaware that he has released a virus or installed a Trojan Horse which enables the computer to work as a Zombie. Now the hacker can use the infected computer to launch an attack or send out spam to other computers without the owners knowing.
