In The News

The threat of inbound spam is pretty widely understood, by service providers, of course, and by end users. Outbound spam, generated within a service providers' own network, presents a few more serious problems. It can ultimately result in a provider being blacklisted, and can cause permanent damage to its reputation.

The Command antivirus division of Authentium, Inc., a Florida-based company, which designs software to protect e-commerce by uniting users and websites in an end-to-end secured transaction environment is being acquired by Commtouch

A security trends report I read recently suggests that spammers are now employing techniques that make it look as though their messages have originated from Gmail accounts, either by using actual compromised accounts or just by knocking up a template that copies the message style used by this service.

Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq: CTCH; TASE: CTCH) yesterday acquired the assets, products, licenses, and operations of the Command antivirus division of Authentium, Inc for $4.6 million in cash. Command provides its technology to leading service providers and vendors, including Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE), and Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT).

Commtouch bought the assets, products, licenses, and operations of the Command antivirus division of Authentium for $4.6

Cybercriminals have been increasing the effectiveness of their individual outreach by creating multi-stage, also known as blended, attacks, which combine messaging and Web elements, according to Internet Threats Trend Report by Commtouch.

The most exploited vulnerabilities tend to be Adobe Reader and Internet Explorer, but a rising target for exploits is Java, according to a report to be released on Wednesday by M86 Security Labs.

Cybercriminals have reportedly increased their effectiveness by launching "multi-stage" attacks that combine messaging with other Web activities.
"[Criminal elements] have been forced to change their techniques to evade improved detection technology," Commtouch VP Asaf Greiner told TG Daily in an e-mailed statement.

Commtouch recently released its Internet Threats Trend Report for Q2 2010  [PDF file], which states that spam comprised an average of 82 percent of all email traffic throughout the quarter, peaking at 92 percent near the end of June.

If you were asked to paint a verbal picture of the Internet in just five words, would they be porn, drugs, spam, Twitter and zombies? After analyzing an amazing two billion emails a day for three months, that's the image arrived at by one research outfit.
The latest Internet Threat report from Commtouch, released today, contains little in the way of surprise: unless those five words have been off your security risk radar that is.

Spammers have become adept at using the most familiar Internet names to give deceptive legitimacy to the billions of emails they send. Between 5 and 10 percent of all spam appears to originate from Gmail accounts, for example. That’s one finding from the Internet Threats Trend Report Q1 2010 from Commtouch Inc., a messaging and Web security technology vendor with U.S. offices in Sunnyvale, Calif.

A report in connection with the problem of outgoing junk e-mail maintains that over 66% of all ISPs globally are encountering a massive expense on account of outgoing spam being generated on their customers' PC networks.

The outbound spam issue highlighted by the report is one example of the business issues that compromised computers pose for ISPs. One in six providers spends more than USD 100,000 attempting to prevent outbound spam from impacting their business, according to the report, which was funded by e-mail security service Commtouch.

E-mail users have raised concerns about services that fail to ensure spam is not sent from the provider's network, otherwise known as outbound spam.

Sixty-eight percent of service providers say outbound spam costs them up to $100,000 per year, according to a new research study “The Growing Problem of Outbound Spam” by industry analyst firm Osterman Research and Commtouch.

SUNNYVALE, USA: Sixty-eight percent of service providers say outbound spam costs them up to $100,000 per year, according to a new research study “The Growing Problem of Outbound Spam” by industry analyst firm Osterman Research and Commtouch.

With spam volumes rising relentlessly a new survey claims to have detected an iota of worry among service providers. It seems many of them would love to do something about it but don't know what.

Eight in 10 email users responding to an Osterman Research poll, commissioned by Commtouch, said they believe it is important or extremely important that their service provider ensured that outbound spam was not sent out.

The majority - 68% - of ISPs say that outbound spam costs them up to $100,000 per year; another 4% say it costs them as much as $250,000, according to a new research study by industry analyst firm Osterman Research and Commtouch.

Everyone hates spam, but no one is quite sure what to do about it. We can obviously deploy anti-spam software to stem the tide. But invariably, it seems like the spammers find a way around the spam filters we spend so much time and energy managing.

The outbound spam issue highlighted by the report is one example of the business issues that compromised computers pose for ISPs. One in six providers spends more than $100,000 attempting to prevent outbound spam from impacting their business, according to the report, which was funded by e-mail security service Commtouch.

Sixty-eight percent of service providers say outbound spam costs them up to $100,000 per year, according to a new research study by industry analyst firm Osterman Research and Commtouch.

A report on the issue of outbound spam claims that more than two-thirds of the world's ISPs are experiencing an expensive headache due to the generation of outbound spam on their networks.

Spam is not only irritating, but it also costs the organizations a lot of money. According to a new report by Commtouch-Osterman, 68 percent of service providers say outbound spam costs them up to $100,000 per year.

In my last column, I took a look at the ways that professional spammers innovate using e-mail, and pointed out a few points we could all take away and apply to our future efforts. While some people loved this column, others laughed, and a few others pointed out that life is not all roses in the professional spamming world.

Commontouch, In its quarterly 'Internet Threats Trend Report' published on April 14, 2010, highlights that spammers have set up false Gmail accounts, and are using them to exorbitantly spam inboxes, causing 'Gmail.com' to be the most exploited Internet name.

Commtouch has released its Internet Threats Trend Report for Q1 2010, which reports spammers have become adept at using the most familiar Internet names to give deceptive legitimacy to the billions of emails that they send. For example, between five to 10 percent of all spam appears to originate from Gmail accounts. This quarter’s trend report analyzes the percentage of spam that actually emanates from Gmail.

Porn sites are still the most likely online destinations to be compromised with malware, in spite of increasing attacks on legitimate non-porn websites, according to a report released by security company Commtouch this week.

Comment les spammeurs utilisent les notions familières pour provoquer la chute de leurs victimes. Commtouch publie aujourd’hui son rapport sur les menaces Internet : Internet Threats Trend Report for Q1 2010.

According to the latest Internet Threats Trend Report for Q1 2010 to be published by Commtouch Labs, spammers are now well and truly using the familiar to inspire end user action. Indeed, by using the most familiar of Internet names the spammers are able to give a deceptive legitimacy to billions of emails they send. So, for example, you'll find that between five and ten percent of all spam by volume would appear to have originated from some Gmail account or other. That does not, however, mean that the same volume actually emanates from Gmail.

Commtouch (News  - Alert)  recently released its Internet Threats Trend Report for Q1 2010. Spammers have become skillful at using the familiar Internet names to give misleading authenticity to billions of e-mails.

Recently, I found that many of my regular emails in my Gmail account are being delivered to the spam folder. I have been using Gmail since many years and never had any complaints on the way the system was being handled by the search engine giant.

Between five and 10pc of all spam circulating in the first quarter of 2010 appeared to originate from Gmail accounts, says internet security firm Commtouch as it released its Internet Threats Trend Report for the quarter.

Selon le rapport, "les spammeurs sont devenus des experts dans l’utilisation des noms de domaines les plus célèbres de l’Internet, afin de donner une légitimité trompeuse aux milliards de courriels qu’ils envoient". Le site www.infos-utiles.fr, qui reprend l’information, souligne de son côté que "le rapport analyse le pourcentage de spams qui émane effectivement de compte Google. Le "style" des messages de GMail, ainsi que ceux de Paypal et de Facebook est fréquemment utilisé par les spammeurs et spécalistes d’attaques de phishing comme structures de leurs courriels"

O Brasil continua na liderança dos países com maior número de "computadores zumbis", de acordo com relatório sobre segurança na web divulgado na quarta-feira (14) pela Commtouch. O relatório – que aborda ameaças da internet no primeiro trimestre de 2010 – mostra que o país foi responsável por 14% da atividade global de computadores zumbis nos três primeiros meses deste ano, apontando uma queda em relação ao quarto trimestre de 2009, que registrou 20,4%.

Spammers favored fake Gmail, PayPal  and Facebook messages during the first quarter, according to a report released Wednesday by Commtouch Inc.

Spammers are misusing well known names on the internet to give deceptive legitimacy to the emails they send, according to Internet Threats Trend Report for Q1 2010 from Commtouch.

Gmail spam is on the rise. Spammers are using fake Gmail  accounts to clog up inboxes, making "Gmail.com" the most abused domain name, according to Commtouch's quarterly Internet Threats Trend Report, released Wednesday.

The adage ‘the best defense is a good offense’ is being put into action in the war against spam through Commtouch’s (News  - Alert)  new Outbound Spam Protection solution, which has been especially tailored for Internet service providers and Web hosting companies.

Commtouch has introduced a new system, based on the company's Recurrent Pattern Detection technology, designed to help service providers identify sources of spam within their networks. The Commtouch Outbound Spam Protection (OSP) system has two primary functions: a) it blocks spam emanating from service provider networks, and b) it rapidly identifies the sender of the offending content.

Commtouch^® and MXSweep today announced that MXSweep has further enhanced its email security as a service (SaaS) platform with the addition of Commtouch’s GlobalView™ Mail Reputation Service and Outbound Spam Protection solutions.

Commtouch^® (NASDAQ: CTCH) announced the upcoming release of its connector for Microsoft Exchange Server, allowing operators of hosted and managed Microsoft Exchange environments to easily reduce costs and differentiate their email offerings. This latest innovation will allow these operators to enjoy the same ease of integration that is already experienced by service providers that have deployed Commtouch on their open source infrastructure.

While the move to domain-based standards is just getting underway, some in the industry are looking beyond this standard to additional measures. Up to this point, only the reputation of a sender's IP address has been a focus, according to Amir Lev, CTO, president, and co-founder of Commtouch.

CommTouch recently released its Internet Threats Trend Report for Q4 2009, based on the analysis of over two billion email messages and Internet transactions seen daily in the company’s cloud-based global detection centers.

Spammers continue to be cutting-edge marketers, this time taking advantage of the reputations of global brands, such as UPS, DHL and Facebook, to prompt opening of emails. These are the findings of the latest Commtouch Internet Threats Trend report.

And once again, news of the next Y2K bug spreads...this time dubbed the Y2K10 bug. While this bug didn't get anywhere near the attention that its predecessor did, it still caused significant damage.The following Commtouch blog post goes into more detail about the bug but basically what happened is this...SpamAssassin, an open source mail filter has a rule in place that checks to see if a message is sent from the "far future."

Commtouch issued its Q4-2009 Internet Threats Trend Report, highlighting that during this period, a virus named 'Mal-BredoA'
spread across the globe continuously from Q3-2009. Cyber criminals morphed the packaging of virus as attachments from world-renowned
package delivery firm, but it actually sent from the frequently-visited social-networking website, Facebook.

Spammers take advantage of the reputations of global brands such as UPS, DHL and Facebook to prompt opening of emails, according to a new report by Commtouch.