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Email Security

Palin hacker begins time in prison, not halfway house

Dan Kaplan January 14, 2011

The student convicted of hacking into the Yahoo email account of Sarah Palin while she was the Republican candidate for vice president has begun serving a prison term.

Spam, after a holiday hiatus, returns in earnest

Angela Moscaritolo January 10, 2011

The Rustock botnet, dubbed the biggest source of global spam, has resumed activity after a two-week break, according to security researchers at Symantec.

Fake Microsoft security update spreading malware

Angela Moscaritolo January 04, 2011

A new wave of malicious emails containing a fake Microsoft Windows security update began hitting inboxes in an effort to spread malware, researchers at anti-virus firm Sophos have warned. The messages, which appear to be sent from Microsoft's security team and contain the subject line "Update your Windows," advise users to update their operating system by downloading an attached executable file, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, wrote in a blog post Tuesday. The attached file, called "KB453396-ENU.zip," is actually an AutoRun worm. Users should be advised that Microsoft never distributes security updates via email attachments, Cluley said. - AM

Google quickly shores up Gmail spam flaw

Angela Moscaritolo November 22, 2010

Google has fixed what is being described as a serious security flaw that allowed a hacker to harvest Gmail addresses and send spam from the search giant's servers.

New malicious email campaign targets Facebook users

Dan Kaplan November 19, 2010

A large wave of malicious emails claiming to come from Facebook began hitting inboxes this morning, according to researchers at messaging security firm AppRiver. The emails contain the subject line "Facebook Support" and purport to be from "Facebook office." Recipients are told their Facebook accounts have been blocked due to spam activity and they must use a new password, which is included in an attachment. However, the attachment actually contains a variant of the Oficla downloader, which has been known to install rogue anti-virus programs and the Zeus trojan. AppRiver has detected more than 100,000 of the messages. - DK

Ten years of evolving threats: A look back at the impact of notable malicious wares of the past decade

Derek Manky, project manager, Fortinet Fortiguard Labs November 15, 2010

As security firm Fortinet celebrates 10 years in business, Fortiguard Labs took a look at the 10 most intriguing threats during the past decade and showed how their feature sets have evolved, Darwin-like, over time.

The "Here you have" worm brought us a close encounter with ancient history

Lysa Myers, director of research, West Coast Labs October 05, 2010

A recent mass-spreading email worm demonstrated how far user education, industry collaboration and technology have come to fight malware, but it also served as a reminder that the criminals remain one step ahead.

Latest Zeus attack propagated via fake iTunes receipt

Angela Moscaritolo October 05, 2010

Attackers are sending out spam messages spoofing an iTunes store receipt in an attempt to lead users to the insidious data-stealing trojan Zeus.

LinkedIn spam run aims to foist Zeus on victim PCs

Dan Kaplan September 28, 2010

Users of LinkedIn are being targeted in a massive spam campaign designed to install the bank credential-stealing Zeus trojan on their machines. The emails, accounting for nearly a quarter of all spam at one point Monday, mimic LinkedIn invitations, according to Cisco. But when users click on the link contained in the message, they are delivered to a website that reads "PLEASE WAITING...4 SECONDS" and then are directed to Google. During that time, however, Zeus is installed on their machines if they are unpatched for certain browser vulnerabilities. This particular spam campaign and ensuing drive-by download attempts are notable because of the size and the apparent targets: business professionals with access to corporate bank accounts, Henry Stern, a Cisco senior security researcher, said in a blog post. — DK

Phish claims recipient's tax payment was rejected

Angela Moscaritolo September 16, 2010

A newly discovered phishing scam targeting users of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), a free tax payment service, is making its way into inboxes, according to researchers at McAfee. The messages, which contain the subject line: "Your EFTPS Tax Payment ID has been rejected," claim that the recipient's tax payment did not go through because of an invalid ID number. The messages direct users to a fake website for additional information. Researchers discovered a set of spoofed websites used in the attack that were created on Sept. 12. Users should disregard such messages, researchers said. — AM

Email worm traced back to cyber-jihad group

Dan Kaplan September 13, 2010

The person responsible for the "Here you have" email worm, which wreaked havoc last week on businesses across the United States, may be part of a cyber-jihad group wanting to hack into U.S. Army IT systems.

Major U.S. organizations hit by 'Here you have' email worm

Angela Moscaritolo September 10, 2010

A number of major U.S. major organizations were affected by a rapidly spreading email worm that hit inboxes worldwide beginning Thursday.

Mass email worm found spreading

Dan Kaplan September 09, 2010

Never mind the advanced persistent threat. A new mass-mailing worm that may conjure up images of Nimda and Code Red appears to be threatening email infrastructures.

Adobe grapples with new Reader, Acrobat zero-day

Dan Kaplan September 08, 2010

Adobe on Wednesday confirmed a dangerous Reader and Acrobat vulnerability, which is being exploited in the wild.

Nigerian man imprisoned on false promise of fortune

Dan Kaplan September 03, 2010

A Nigerian man was sentenced Friday to nearly 13 years in prison for helping to mastermind an "advance-fee" scheme built on the promise of riches.

Spam volume plunges in wake of Pushdo takedown

Dan Kaplan August 27, 2010

Efforts by a security company have resulted in the crippling of the notorious Pushdo, or Cutwail, botnet infrastructure.

World Cup spam tries to net malware victims

Dan Kaplan June 11, 2010

Malicious emails capitalizing on the World Cup soccer tournament, which began Friday, are hitting inboxes worldwide. Security firm Websense said Thursday in a blog post that it began tracking 80,000 spam messages armed with World Cup-related subjects that contain HTML attachments with embedded JavaScript. Users who click on the attachment are led to a malicious website, according to Websense. Internet surfers should also be mindful of poisoned results that may appear when they search on Google for information related to the tournament. — DK

Microsoft plans to beef up security of Hotmail

Angela Moscaritolo May 21, 2010

Much like Google has done with Gmail, Microsoft is set to improve the security of Hotmail with full-session SSL encryption and a number of other enhancements.

AutoRun worms most common malware during Q1 2010

Angela Moscaritolo May 18, 2010

Portable storage device threats, such as AutoRun worms, were the most prevalent type of malware worldwide during the first quarter of the year, according to a McAfee report issued Tuesday.

Cloud computing: Up in the air, and back down on the ground

Michael Donnelly, application solutions architect, Sendmail May 17, 2010

To avoid unintended consequences, organizations considering moving applications, such as email, to the cloud must ask lots of questions.

"Avalanche" phishing slowing, but was all the 2009 rage

Dan Kaplan May 12, 2010

A single crime syndicate dominated the phishing scene last year, but the outfit appears to be taking quieter breaths in 2010, a new report concludes.

Microsoft pushes fixes for two bugs in light Patch Tuesday

Dan Kaplan May 11, 2010

Microsoft distributed two patches on Tuesday for issues in Windows and Office, but customers must wait until at least next month for a SharePoint security fix.

California ISP wins $2.6M judgment against spammers

Dan Kaplan May 07, 2010

A small California ISP this week was awarded nearly $2.6 million stemming from a lawsuit filed against a company accused of delivering nearly 25,000 spam messages.

Malicious emails masquerading as Adobe warning

Angela Moscaritolo May 05, 2010

Researchers at anti-spam firm Red Condor are warning users of malicious emails crafted to look like a legitimate thread of forwarded messages discussing Adobe software vulnerabilities. The thread begins with an email supposedly coming from an employee in Adobe's Risk Management department that warns recipients of a denial-of service-vulnerability and urges them to apply a patch. Adding legitimacy to the campaign, the emails appear to have been forwarded by people of higher positions in the recipient's organization. The messages contain a link to an executable, which has been identified as a trojan. Adobe, in a Wednesday blog post, advised people to ignore the email. — AM

LoveBug: A decade of virus detection

Paul Fletcher, chief software architect, Symantec Hosted Services May 03, 2010

A top Symantec engineer recounts one of the most exciting days of his career: Ten years ago this week, the ILOVEYOU, or LoveBug, worm spread across the world and crippled PCs.

Storm Worm making comeback with new spam run

Dan Kaplan April 28, 2010

Researchers at CA say they have detected a new variant of the Storm Worm, the infamous botnet best known for its spam-producing abilities, but which was effectively killed off more than a year ago.

Botnet disconnections have little impact on spam volume

Angela Moscaritolo April 14, 2010

Despite the takedown of a number of prolific botnets, spam remains strong, according to a report issued Wednesday by email security provider Google Postini.

Easter-related spam and malware targets the unwitting

Dan Kaplan April 02, 2010

Between now and Sunday, users should be careful not to fall for email ruses capitalizing on the Easter holiday, security firms are warning.

Scammers capitalizing on tax season to spread Zeus

Angela Moscaritolo March 26, 2010

Researchers have discovered a new tax-related spam campaign propagating the data-stealing trojan Zeus.

Faux Facebook emails use password reset ploy

Dan Kaplan March 18, 2010

Scammers are trying to infect the computers of Facebook users by claiming their password has been reset and that a replacement credential is contained in an attachment.