Network technologies and trends » SPAM

Cisco 2009 Midyear Security Report is out

Yasir Irfan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:26:21 +0000

According to the Cisco 2009 Midyear Security Report , the Conficker worm is still active and affecting thousands of Systems daily. Just to recap the Conficker worm began infecting the Systems in late 2008 and still an active worm.

Pic Courtesy:Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems released the Cisco 2009 Midyear Security Report on 14^th of July 2009 and the report highlights some of the most common technical and business strategies that Internet criminals used to breach corporate networks compromise Web sites and steal personnel information.

The highlights of the Cisco 2009 Midyear Security Report is as follows

The Conficker worm, which began infecting computer systems late last year by exploiting a Windows operating system vulnerability, continues to spread. Several million computer systems were under Conficker’s control as of June 2009.
Online criminals are up on current events and making the most of them. After the outbreak of H1N1 influenza (“swine flu”) in April, cybercriminals quickly blanketed the Web with spam that advertised preventive drugs and linked to fake pharmacies. Cybercriminals will often seize on major news events to launch this type of attack. While many spammers continue to operate with extremely high volumes, some are opting for lower-volume but more frequent attacks in an effort to remain under the radar.
President Barack Obama has made strengthening U.S. cybersecurity a high priority for his administration and looks to work with the international community and the private sector to leverage technology innovations to reduce cybercrime. This focus is expected to have a significant positive impact for the industry in the coming months. John N. Stewart, Cisco’s chief security officer and a contributor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report for the Obama administration, provided additional insight in a recent blog and video blog post.

Specific Threats

Botnets. These networks of compromised computers serve as efficient means of launching an attack. Increasingly, botnet owners are renting out these networks to fellow criminals, effectively using these compromised resources to deliver spam and malware via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
Spam. One of the most established ways to reach millions of computers with legitimate sales pitches or links to malicious Web sites, spam remains a major vehicle for spreading worms and malware, as well as for clogging Internet traffic. A staggering 180 billion spam messages are sent each day, representing about 90 percent of the world’s e-mail traffic.
Worms. The rise of social networking has made it easier to launch worm attacks. People engaging in these online communities are more likely to click links and download content they believe were sent by people they know and trust.
Spamdexing. Many types of businesses use search engine optimization to be listed more prominently in searches conducted on Google and other sites. Spamdexing, which packs a Web site with relevant keywords or search terms, is increasingly being used by cybercriminals seeking to disguise malware as legitimate software. Because so many consumers tend to trust rankings on leading search engines, they may readily download one of the fake software packages.
Text message scams. Since the start of 2009 at least two or three new campaigns have surfaced every week targeting handheld mobile devices. Cisco describes the rapidly growing mobile device audience as a “new frontier for fraud irresistible to criminals.” With some 4.1 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, a criminal may cast an extraordinarily wide net and still walk away with a nice profit, even if the attack yields only a small fraction of victims.
Insiders. The global recession has caused many job losses. As a result, insider threats are an increasing concern for businesses in the months ahead. Insiders who commit fraud can be contractors or other third parties as well as current and former employees.

Download the Cisco 2009 Midyear Security Report.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/fEFTnJwnRS8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Cisco brings security to life with animated characters -Watch Second Eposide

Yasir Irfan — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:14:06 +0000

Dear friends in my post on March 9^th I was talking about the ‘The Realm.”, now the second episode is available you can watch this and just relax watching the latest security threats in the animated format.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/cWHrAgVcqY4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Cisco brings security to life with animated characters

Yasir Irfan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:31:08 +0000

Cisco has appointed a select group of Cisco Engineers to develop a state-of-the-art security force. ‘The Realm.” growing beyond the systems in which they were created into a group of powerful defenders. Forming a unified league of security, the defenders battle Botnets, Malware, Spam and Intruders in the Realm, assuring the safety and security of every citizen on the human network.

‘The Realm.”is an online comic that animates the pane flow and adds voice narration. Creatively it’s an engaging experience, not as complete as a full scale animation but more alive that just a flat 2D image.

Visit http://www.cisco.com/go/realm to learn more.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/MY3yw6Hui48" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

90% of email is spam according to Cisco Annual Security report 2008

Yasir Irfan — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:07:18 +0000

According to the Cisco Annual Security Report 2008, Spam accounts nearly 200 billion messages per day or approximately 90% of all email worldwide.

The report highlights the security threats and trends; the most disturbing fact is more online criminals are using real email accounts with legitimate web mail providers to bombard the emails with spam. This method, known as ‘reputation hijacking’, makes spam harder to detect and block.

According to Cisco estimates, spam resulting from email reputation hijacking of the top three web mail providers accounted for less than 1% of all spam worldwide, but made up 7.6% of the providers’ mail traffic.

Additionally, researchers have seen a 90% growth in threats originating from legitimate domains, doubling 2007 figures. For rest of the story please check the article published by ITP Middle East.