August 2008 - Posts
Spamwars reports that the SANS Internet Storm Center have reported a number of domain names containing the word "gustav" are being registered. In case you are unaware, Hurricane Gustav is the latest hurricane that threatens to pummel the
Read More...
Spammer X is an ex-spammer who has written book called "Inside the Spam Cartel: Trade Secrets from the Dark Side." He's a former spammer who retired in 2004 who has shared many of his tricks of the trade. He presented at the Spam Symposium
Read More...
Not content to let the ZDnet article go away, I still have a bit more to say about spammer economics. Sam Masiello of MXLogic writes on his blog some estimates about how much money a spammer makes and what his potential return on investment is using
Read More...
Referring again back to the article about 29% of internet users buying stuff from there spam, here's another excerpt which is less controversial: Research and Content Engineering) security team, indicates that global spam volumes doubled for the year
Read More...
An article on Directmag reports the following: Twenty nine percent of Internet users have purchased goods from spam emails, according to recent research by online security company Marshal. The most commonly purchased items include sexual enhancement pills,
Read More...
As a follow up from my previous post, I've calmed down a bit and started to regain my calm, Zen-like demeanor. I have not managed to get the new filter out there. However, I have devised a scheme wherein we can monitor potential FPs closely.
Read More...
From time to time, I like to reflect upon my own personal strengths and weaknesses. I may be a spam fighter, but I'm also a professional working within Microsoft and I want grow my entire asset base of skills, not just in spam analysis. You know
Read More...
Box of Meat antispam blog has a link to an article on ZDNet: 1.5m spam emails sent from compromised University accounts . Some excerpts: “Hackers gained access to the University of Otago staff email server recently and used it to send out
Read More...
I came across this parody of a 419 while reading a financial blog. In lieu of the current financial atmosphere of the United States, I thought it was very amusing. FROM: Dr Ben Bernanke Central Bank of United States of America 01-658-555-1234 TO:
Read More...
I have a Windows Live Space blog that I update somewhat less frequently than I update this one. I rarely get comments on that one, either. But once in a while I do. It's linked to my Hotmail account which I have had for years. I rarely
Read More...
Following on from my previous post on my comments on Mark Risher of Yahoo, with whom there was a user interview, I'd like to respond to a couple more of his responses to users. Mindy: What are you recommendations for handling blocks due to complaint volume,
Read More...
A quick update on CNN spam, they have morphed their subject lines and are now breaking news alerts for MSNBC. I haven't seen any personally (nor did I receive a phone call at 3 am alerting me to this) but others on our spam team have. Apparently,
Read More...
Following on from my previous post on the interview with the spam chief at Yahoo, I thought I'd respond to a couple more things that Mark Risher said. bartonas: What is the effect, if any, other than putting it back in my in-box, of me selecting "not
Read More...
The spam outbreak "from" CNN the occurred this past week has morphed into a new breed: It appears that the spammers have learned from previous mistakes because this one is a little slicker. In the body contents, just like the old one it contains
Read More...
A few days ago, Yahoo antispam chief Mark Risher hosted a Q&A session with various users and answered their questions, both pre-submitted and live questions. I thought I'd chime in and take some selected quotes from the session and add my own
Read More...
I've been seeing some CNN spam the past few days, that is, spam in the form of breaking news stories from CNN.com. Below is a sample: These all look like legitimate news stories, and indeed, they probably are taken straight from an actual CNN news
Read More...
