Microsoft Takes On the Spam Kings
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Faced with a growing number of more sophisticated Internet spammers, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) is fighting back. The company is taking on those creating and exploiting "zombie" computers to deliver mass e-mail and launch phishing expeditions against unsuspecting computer users.
This company's most recent effort was prompted by a test in which the software giant set up its own zombie machine and tracked all Internet traffic on it for 20 days last summer. During that time, the infected computer received some five million connection requests from spammers who used the machine to send out over 18 million spam messages advertising more than 13,000 individual Web sites.
The company had quarantined the machine, so these spam messages never went out to the Internet at large. With evidence gathered from this test, the company filed a federal lawsuit against 13 different spamming operations. The zombie investigation also gave the company new insight into how to combat spam and zombies, as well as how to fight the perpetrators in court.
Outsmarting the Opposition
Microsoft was able to uncover the Internet Protocol addresses of the computers sending spamming requests to the quarantined zombie, along with the addresses of the Web sites advertised in the spam. To prove these requests were not isolated examples, Microsoft compared the Web sites advertised in the quarantined zombie's spam to those listed in spam in the MSN Hotmail trap accounts.
"Spammers are constantly changing their tactics, seeking new techniques to remain hidden as governments and individuals take steps to stop them," said Aaron Kornblum, an Internet safety enforcement attorney with Microsoft. "What they are doing now is sending e-mail through other people's computers using proxy malware."
With hundreds of thousands of PCs running around the clock on broadband connections, spammers can use master lists of vulnerable machines to wreak havoc in short time, said Kornblum. "What we saw last summer was astonishing, and that was with only one computer. There are tens of millions of infected machines out there."
Word to the Wise
Consequently, Microsoft has joined forces with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Action to target those profiting from spam and educate consumers on how to protect themselves.
The FTC, a federal consumer-protection agency, has launched "Operation Spam Zombies" with 35 government partners from more than 20 countries to prod Internet service providers (ISPs) into improving their security.
And because zombie computers show few recognizable signs of infection, it is critical that users protect their systems. An ounce of prevention does indeed go a long way, and that includes installing a firewall, obtaining security updates (or turning on the Windows automatic-update feature), and using current antivirus and antispyware software.
"As always, people should be smart about opening any attachment or downloading files, and never open attachments from unknown sources," Kornblum said.
Article submitted by: Webshark
Last Update: 10-28-2005
Category: Security
Faced with a growing number of more sophisticated Internet spammers, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) is fighting back. The company is taking on those creating and exploiting "zombie" computers to deliver mass e-mail and launch phishing expeditions against unsuspecting computer users.
This company's most recent effort was prompted by a test in which the software giant set up its own zombie machine and tracked all Internet traffic on it for 20 days last summer. During that time, the infected computer received some five million connection requests from spammers who used the machine to send out over 18 million spam messages advertising more than 13,000 individual Web sites.
The company had quarantined the machine, so these spam messages never went out to the Internet at large. With evidence gathered from this test, the company filed a federal lawsuit against 13 different spamming operations. The zombie investigation also gave the company new insight into how to combat spam and zombies, as well as how to fight the perpetrators in court.
Outsmarting the Opposition
Microsoft was able to uncover the Internet Protocol addresses of the computers sending spamming requests to the quarantined zombie, along with the addresses of the Web sites advertised in the spam. To prove these requests were not isolated examples, Microsoft compared the Web sites advertised in the quarantined zombie's spam to those listed in spam in the MSN Hotmail trap accounts.
"Spammers are constantly changing their tactics, seeking new techniques to remain hidden as governments and individuals take steps to stop them," said Aaron Kornblum, an Internet safety enforcement attorney with Microsoft. "What they are doing now is sending e-mail through other people's computers using proxy malware."
With hundreds of thousands of PCs running around the clock on broadband connections, spammers can use master lists of vulnerable machines to wreak havoc in short time, said Kornblum. "What we saw last summer was astonishing, and that was with only one computer. There are tens of millions of infected machines out there."
Word to the Wise
Consequently, Microsoft has joined forces with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Action to target those profiting from spam and educate consumers on how to protect themselves.
The FTC, a federal consumer-protection agency, has launched "Operation Spam Zombies" with 35 government partners from more than 20 countries to prod Internet service providers (ISPs) into improving their security.
And because zombie computers show few recognizable signs of infection, it is critical that users protect their systems. An ounce of prevention does indeed go a long way, and that includes installing a firewall, obtaining security updates (or turning on the Windows automatic-update feature), and using current antivirus and antispyware software.
"As always, people should be smart about opening any attachment or downloading files, and never open attachments from unknown sources," Kornblum said.
Article submitted by: Webshark
Last Update: 10-28-2005
Category: Security
Current rating: 5.51 by 45 users
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Re: Microsoft Takes On the Spam Kings ~~
By: Gareth @ 05:26:22 : 10-30-2005