Spam

SPOTLIGHT: Spam is big business

Judi Hasson — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:48:55 -0400

Testimony and evidence presented at the trial in Seattle of spam king Robert Soloway has shed new light on the extensive, sophisticated online business of fraudulent emailing. Article

Spam is everywhere--even on your cell phone

Mon, 12 May 2008 07:00:00 -0400

Spam is everywhere--even on your cell phone

You thought you had wrestled spam to the ground, and maybe you have on your computer system. But now comes a new trend reported by the New York Times that spam is increasing greatly on cell phones, too.

It's just a little headache, you think. But now that many cell phones are used for email and integrated into office systems, they could provide a backdoor for new viruses. And while it's not part of your job description, it may soon be part of your problem. Spam in the form of text messages also could increase costs for your company because these messages are charged to the receiving cell.

So it's important to stay at attention. Perhaps CIOs need to survey company departments and check with accounting to see if there has been a rise text charges that may be related to spam. If so, it may be time to contact your telecommunications carrier and take necessary precautions. - Judi

Get ready for cell phone spam

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Anthony Melone, Verizon Wireless's chief technology officer, started getting complaints last March from customers about unsolicited text messages that were flooding the network. He and his Verizon tech staff found the messages were coming from someone using email accounts at Microsoft's Internet portal, msn.com--just one recent source of the estimated 1.5 billion unsolicited cell phone text message expected in 2008.

This not only is an issue for CIOs and their IT departments at telecommunications companies, but also for employers who pay the cell phone bills of their workers and may get stuck with unnecessary charges and even bigger problems. Experts say that besides the annoyance and the extra costs, there is a threat of viruses as phones become more like personal computers.

Carriers adjust their spam filters to try and block offending messages, and computer security companies have developed products to help fight mobile phone spam. It might be worth assessing whether this is an issue at your company, and whether it rises to the level where action is needed.

For more on cell phone spam:
- see this New York Times article

Watch out for Valentine's Day spam

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:59:59 -0500

The potential for email spam on Valentine's Day is so great that even the FBI is getting involved. "With the holiday approaching, be on the lookout for spam e-mails spreading the Storm Worm malicious software," the FBI said in an alert posted to the home page of its Web site on Feb. 12. "The Storm Worm virus has capitalized on various holidays in the last year by sending millions of e-mails advertising an e-card link within the text of the spam e-mail. Valentine's Day has been identified as the next target."

The FBI was late in issuing its warning, according to an article in ComputerWorld. For several weeks, security vendors have been warning that the worm would use this romantic holiday to trick computer users into opening attachments or clicking links, letting the culprits in the door. Last year, the botnet Trojan made its first splash in January 2007, and researchers have long expected its return this Valentine's Day as well.

That's exactly how things have played out in the days leading to Feb. 14. Trend Micro's David Sancho spelled it out in a post to the company's blog on Monday, giving employees a short warning of what might be coming instead of flowers and chocolates. "The spammed e-mail messages are just plain text, but contain links that lead to malicious Web sites displaying one of eight cute Valentine images," Sancho said. "If you run the executable named 'valentine.exe,' your system will join the Storm botnet to start spamming other Internet users." "Not very loving of them," Sancho concluded.

For more on Valentine's Day spam:
- See this ComputerWorld article

Is your VoIP network secure?

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:59:58 -0500

Got VoIP security? Well if you don't, this may be the year that you see the first serious attacks on your VoIP networks. It may also be the year that the forthcoming presidential election and Olympic games face serious hacking attacks. The year 2008 is expected to be dominated by security issues, and that is no surprise. While you may not be anywhere near the Olympics, your systems may feel the impact of an attack. You may think you have the very best security, but you may not. Also on tap are Storm-like botnets with decentralized command-and-control structures that make them much tougher to stop, said Craig Schmugar, researcher at McAfee. "Storm is a trend setter," Schmugar said of the infamous botnet that traces back to a network attack launched one year ago. "A lot of the spam we see is coming across Storm-compromised machines." McAfee also predicts waves of malware looking for specific files and embedding themselves. It may not sound like the soap opera, "As the World Turns," but be prepared!

For more on this year's security threats:
- See Network World article

95 percent of all email is spam?

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:59:54 -0500

This one comes to us from the sensational headlines department: according to spam researchers at Barracuda Networks, spam now accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all email sent. And that's not the most disturbing thing: the problem is only getting worse. While spam only accounted for 5 percent of all email in 2001, that percentage rose steadily to 85-90 percent last year and as much as 95 percent this year. While not everyone agrees on these numbers--Symantec says that their studies show spam volume increasing from 56 percent last year to 71 percent this year--researchers at least agree that the general trend is that spam volume is still on the rise.

For more on the statistic:
- see this Ars Technica article

Google's email hang-up

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:59:59 -0500

Got any aspirin? Google sure needed some last week. Google disabled an unknown number of Gmail accounts in an over-the-top effort to combat spammers. The problem began on Dec. 5 when email users began reporting on the Gmail Help forum that they couldn't access their accounts. Google acknowledged the problem on Thursday afternoon. The Gmail Guide wrote, "Our team is aware of the problem, and our engineers are continuing to investigate." Several hours later, the company said the problem had been fixed. The company said it happened while they were trying to purge spammers from their system. But there still is a problem. The email system apparently would not accept emails while the accounts were offline. And Gmail will not try to re-deliver those emails. Such is life when you play in the big leagues.

"Our goal has always been to keep Gmail free of people who abuse the service and to keep Gmail inboxes free of spam. We've been targeting a large network of spammers to keep them out of the Gmail system and accidentally disabled access to some other accounts," said Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne.

For more on Google's traffic snarls:
- Check out this Computerworld Article

Hack attack alert

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:59:59 -0400

Most CIOs realize that hack attacks are becoming more sophisticated. The days of throwing up a firewall to fix a problem are over. And it's less common now for attackers to break in through the front door. It's becoming more likely that an end-user will launch a worm or bot that causes an attack. It's not that hard; a hacker can send 100 spam e-mails to a company and get one lucky hit. So if you are working on your company's computer security strategy, pay at least as much attention to client-side protections as you do the hacker's old habits.

For more on tech threats:
- check out this InfoWorld article

Tech storage grows up Hack attack alert Why consultants get axed Tech storage grows up

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

For more on tech threats:
- check out this InfoWorld article

Sometimes a CIO has to bring in a tech consultant to upgrade a system. It might happen when there are no people in the IT shop who can handle the task. But there is always a risk in doing this. The consultant may not be on time, the job may be far more complicated than expected, or the consultant and CIO may not be on the same page for efficiently achieving success. In order to protect your company, make sure you have a way out when hiring a consultant. Know who you are hiring and, if at all possible, bring in a trusted consultant that you've worked with before.

To read more on why consultants get axed:
- see this Baseline article

Data storage is becoming more sophisticated. The use of a rotating magnetized disk is receding, and taking its place are solid state drives (SSDs), sometimes referred to as flash drives. They use no moving parts. SSDs are changing the way CIOs view storage for workstations and data centers. Once packaged, these drives are no different from platter-based predecessors as far as interface controllers are concerned. The key difference is the lack of moving parts, and advancement that will deliver an immediate result: data access is near instantaneous.

For more about storage:
- see InformationWeek article

ALSO NOTED: Is technology ready for the Olympics?; When to use e-learning;

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

> One Year until the Olympics in Beijing. Is the technology ready? Article

> When to use e-learning. Article

> Barack Obama gets Web 2.0; connects with business users on LinkedIn. Article

> Microsoft targets booming mobile search ad market. Article

> Why do we still have so much spam? Blog

And Finally… It's back to school time, but should students be able to take cell phones with them? Article