Dear Valued Partner or Friend,
Malware levels have flared up in recent months,
reaching a peak of 25 billion emails with
attached malware in a single day; this after
several years of very low-volume attacks. We
have also seen a major shift in how spam is
being distributed, rather than relying primarily
on botnets, spammers are increasingly relying on
legitimate webmail accounts that have been
hacked or hijacked. To further explore this
malicious behavior, Commtouch surveyed end-users whose email
accounts had been abused. The
results of the study
indicate that 62% of did not even know how they
were hacked, and that two-thirds of the hacked
accounts were used to send spam or scams.
So it’s been an active quarter for the Internet
criminals, and no less busy for the good guys:
Commtouch recently
released its eighth generation Internet security
to bolster the fight against cybercrime – more
details on this exciting new version below.
You'll also find below a
case study
describing how Commtouch solutions benefited a
web hosting provider, and the
Quarterly Internet Threats Trend Report.
I’d also like to extend a warm welcome to
Commtouch’s new CEO, Shlomi Yanai, who brings to
Commtouch two decades of security industry
experience.
Regards,
Rebecca Steinberg Herson
Vice President
Marketing
I am excited to be joining Commtouch, a
company with many core assets, among
them its strong global customer base and
its cloud-based security platform. I
look forward to speaking with many of
you in the coming months on how
Commtouch is enabling its customers to
enhance their business by implementing
effective security.
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Cybercriminals Find Better Ways to
Spread Spam and Malware
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Cybercriminals have changed tactics
in order to increase the
effectiveness of their spam and
malware attacks. The new tactic
involves using compromised, or
hacked accounts, rather than zombie
PCs. While more complex to implement
and less effective for large scale
attacks, the new tactics offer
improved spam delivery rates.
Read
the complete analysis in
the new
"Special
Report: The State of Hacked Accounts" |
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Malware Email Jumps 400%
Q3 2011 saw a major shift in malware activity.
After steadily declining the past several years,
malware email made a massive return during the
quarter. As can be seen in the graph above,
Commtouch Labs registered malware email
outbreaks reaching 25 billion messages in a
single day in August. Throughout August and
early September, average daily email malware was
up 400%, with multiple variants of Sasfis, SpyEye, Zeus, fake AV.
Download the Q3 Internet
Threats Trend Report
and learn more about the recent attacks.
You'll also find a host of additional
information on spam, phishing, Web threats and
malware, such as:
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Gmail.com remains the most spoofed
domain |
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Pharmacy spam on the rise again |
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Facebook attacks show no let up with
new scams throughout Q3 |
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Download the
October 2011 Internet Threats Trend Report
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Partners
can also receive the PowerPoint version
of the trend report to help create
impressive presentations with a minimum
of effort. The slides are available on
our
Partner Marketing
Portal, which provides a
quick and easy way to view and access
the variety of tools Commtouch provides to assist in marketing your
solutions.
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Commtouch Adds New Functionality to Internet
Security
Some of the key features you'll find in version
8 include:
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Improved performance and
infrastructure |
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Expanded Web security capabilities |
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Enhanced email security offerings, and |
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The new unified engine for
deployment of email security, Web
security and antivirus in a single
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Reduced IP
Blacklisting and Improved Customer
Service
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Company: |
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Type of company: |
Premier web hosting provider
offering a variety of
services dedicated to
customer satisfaction.
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Customers: |
Over 340,000 hosted
customers.
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Problem: |
Superb Internet was
suffering from the effects
of outbound spam. Four or
five times per month Superb
IP addresses were added to
blacklists as a result of
spam sent from their
network. Increasing costs
dealing with outbound spam
and damage to Superb's
reputation had become a
major concern. |
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Learn how
Superb Internet was able
to implement Commtouch's Outbound
Spam Protection to clean its network
of spammers while cutting costs,
reducing help desk call and
improving the service it offers its
customer.
We selected Commtouch’s Outbound
Spam Protection as it is the only
product we know of that can process
a very high number of messages, in
great detail, `sniffed’ right off
the network. We consistently strive
to enhance customer service and
improve our efficiency, and
Commtouch has enabled us to do
both.”
Landon Stewart
Manager of Systems
Superb Internet” |
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Commtouch Presents Research Paper at
VB2011 Conference
The continued increase in popularity of Facebook
and its effectiveness at reaching people
has made it a hot spot for
cybercriminals.
Commtouch Anti-Malware Analyst Maria
Patricia Revilla recently conducted a
thorough research analysis to better
understand this growing misuse of
Facebook to spread Malware. The
results of the
research were presented by
Robert Sandilands, Director of Commtouch
VirusLab, at last month's Virus Bulletin VB2011
Conference in Barcelona, Spain. |
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Patricia's
paper explores various social
engineering attacks
that have been identified to spread
malware through Facebook.
The paper also provide
insight on the challenges being faced protecting Facebook users.
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Downloaded the research paper |
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Read more
recent Commtouch industry news coverage.
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Commtouch announced its
third
quarter 2011 results on November 2, reporting a
27% increase in revenue, and non-GAAP earnings
per share of $0.07. Visit the
investor relations section
of Commtouch’s web site to hear the recorded
analyst conference call.
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In this Issue
From the CEO
State of Hacked Accounts
October 2011 Threat Report
New Version Release
Case Study
Research Report
Commtouch in the News
Investor's Corner
Recent News
November 7, 2011
Commtouch Appoints Todd Thomson to Board of Directors
November 2,
2011
Commtouch Reports 27 Percent Increase in Revenue in Third Quarter 2011 Results
October 10, 2011
Hijacked Webmail and Facebook Accounts Lead to
Scams and Plague Users, According to Commtouch
Survey
September 27, 2011
Commtouch Launches Eighth Generation Internet
Security to Bolster the Fight Against Cybercrime
September 13, 2011
BullGuard Selects Multiple Internet Security
Solutions from Commtouch to Protect Millions of
Users
September 6, 2011
Commtouch to Present at the Annual Rodman &
Renshaw Global Investment Conference
August 9,
2011
Superb Internet Identifies Hacked and Spammer
Accounts with Commtouch Outbound Spam Protection
August 3, 2011
Commtouch Reports 39 Percent Increase in Revenue
in Second Quarter 2011 Results
August 1,
2011
Commtouch to Present at the Oppenheimer 14th
Annual Technology Conference
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