Security » Spam

9 Dirty Tricks: Social Engineers' Favourite Pick-Up Lines

What the average guy might call a con is known in the security world as social engineering. Social engineering is the criminal art of scamming a person into doing something or divulging sensitive information. These days, there are thousands of ways for con artists to pull off their tricks (See: Social Engineering: Eight Common Tactics). Here we look at some of the most common lines these people are using to fool their victims..

By Joan Goodchild | 17 February, 2009 09:03

Tags: Facebook, phishing, spam, twitter

Spam is silenced, but where are the feds?

On October 14, the US Federal Trade Commission, with help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and New Zealand police, announced that it had shut down a vast international spam network known as HerbalKing.

By Robert McMillan | 28 November, 2008 09:00

Tags: can-spam act, spam

Where is Robert Morris now?

Robert Tappan Morris, the 21-year-old Cornell University student who unleashed the first worm attack on the Internet in 1988, has fully rehabilitated his reputation in the computer science community. Today, he is a respected associate professor of computer science at MIT.

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 03 November, 2008 07:57

Tags: morris worm

Morris worm turns 20: Look what it's done

The Internet will mark an infamous anniversary on Sunday, when the Morris worm turns 20.

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 03 November, 2008 07:57

Tags: morris worm

Will the real spam king please stand up?

As more and more spammers are arrested, prosecuted, and sued under state and federal antispam statutes, there's one thing you can count on: Someone somewhere will invariably call the targeted spammer a "spam king."

By Dan Tynan | 15 October, 2008 10:10

Tags: spam

Famous last words about spam

What Gates, McCain and others have said about those pesky, unwanted e-mails.

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 07 October, 2008 10:54

Tags: spam

Spammers in the slammer

A compilation of the most notorious convicted spammers

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 07 October, 2008 10:38

Tags: spam

Spam filters: Making them work

Spam. It fills our in-boxes, wastes our time and spreads malware -- and it's only getting worse. According to Ferris Research, which studies messaging and content control, 40 trillion spam messages will be sent in 2008, costing businesses more than US$140 billion worldwide -- a significant increase from the 18 trillion sent in 2006 and the 30 trillion in 2007.

By Calvin Sun | 23 September, 2008 09:10

Tags: antispam

Eight crazy e-mail hoaxes millions have fallen for

Congratulations, you won the lottery in a country whose name you can't even pronounce! A wealthy oil executive in a far-off land wants to give you millions of dollars, right now! Sexy girls want to meet you!

8 ways to fight spam filter frustration

Spam. It fills our in-boxes, wastes our time and spreads malware -- and it's only getting worse. According to Ferris Research, which studies messaging and content control, 40 trillion spam messages are expected to be sent in 2008, costing businesses more than $140 billion worldwide -- a significant increase from the 18 trillion spam messages sent in 2006 and the 30 trillion in 2007.

The tale of two busted spammers

Being a technology reporter, my e-mail inbox is a crowded place.

Hunt for the elusive rootkit 'Rustock.C' revealed

Rootkits are software code designed to hide from detection. So Kaspersky Lab's hunt for the elusive Rustock.C rootkit, rumored to exist for almost two years, reads like a detective plot.

How CAPTCHA got trashed

CAPTCHA used to be an easy and useful way for Web administrators to authenticate users. Now it's an easy and useful way for malware authors and spammers to do their dirty work.

Dear Sir or Madam: Lottery scams proliferate

Tom Ericson, a retired bank employee who lives in Denmark, still can't get over how he lost about Euro 60,000 (US$90,000) in a bogus lottery.

Hacked e-mail accounts used in 419 scam "with a twist"

At first blush it seems like a typical 419 (or Nigerian letter) scam - the standard e-mail directing the intended victim to do certain things that supposedly result in a huge payoff to the latter.

Diary of a deliberately spammed housewife

For Tracy Mooney, a married mother of three in the US, the decision to abandon cyber-sense and invite e-mail spam into her life for a month by participating in a McAfee experiment was a bit of a lark.

And still the spam comes...

Tech vendors have made headway in the war on spam, yet spammers are returning volley with sheer numbers. Perhaps it's time for more drastic measures? These are the rumblings from InfoWorld Test Center analysts, who reviewed anti-spam email appliances and released their findings last week.

Lab test: Barracuda Spam Firewall

The Barracuda Spam Firewall blocked more spam before filtering than any other appliance, using IP address reputation. As a result, spam as a percentage of total messages received was the lowest in the test. However, Barracuda also had the lowest percentage of spam caught, 88 per cent, which is acceptable but not great. Lower accuracy sometimes helps reduce the number of false positives, but it didn't seem to help the Barracuda much: one critical false positive and 33 bulk false positives rank sixth and fifth, respectively, among the nine solutions tested. Nevertheless, in terms of overall filtering performance, the Barracuda is definitely usable, especially after bulk senders are whitelisted.