Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Security Spam IT

Spammers 'Gearing Up' Botnets For Holiday Rush 30

Posted by CmdrTaco from the black-friday-is-gonna-suck dept.
chicksdaddy writes "Spam — there's less of it, but it's much nastier, according to the latest statistics from Google's Postini e-mail security service. According to a post on Google's Enterprise blog, the viral content of spam e-mail (both malicious links and attachments) was up 111% from the same quarter in 2009, even as spam volume overall dropped 24%. The Summertime malware push may be evidence of a push to pump up bot networks in advance of the busy holiday online shopping season, according to Google researchers."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Spammers 'Gearing Up' Botnets For Holiday Rush More

Spammers 'Gearing Up' Botnets For Holiday Rush

Comments Filter:

  • I get most spam in January, when some group sends me snail telling me I have to give them lots of my money, and then this is followed up by emails from special "services" that tell me they can help pay the extortion for only $49.99 or some bullshit.

    • I get most spam in January, when some group sends me snail telling me I have to give them lots of my money, and then this is followed up by emails from special "services" that tell me they can help pay the extortion for only $49.99 or some bullshit.

      Snarky tax humor never gets old, does it?

  • When will people learn? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Pojut ( 1027544 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2010 @12:38PM (#33948274) Homepage

    Spammers wouldn't exist if people didn't fall for their trickery. Not necessarily trying to play "blame the victim", but spam wouldn't exist if people take a few seconds and actually think things through.

    Just saying.

    • Re:When will people learn? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Monkeedude1212 ( 1560403 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2010 @12:42PM (#33948344) Journal

      Oh it's no more their fault than it is anyone else's.

      We're always going on about how they need to install a good antivirus and get their system checked out - so when the popup offers them a good antivirus and its "checking their system out" for free - of course they're going to click.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The answer is: never. They never will.

      PC viruses have been around since at least the early 1980's, and quite probably even the 70's, and people are *still* installing them in 2010 because they want to see the cute dancing bear or see what's in "hot_naked_chicks.jpg.exe".

      If, in 30+ years people haven't learned that these things are a bad idea, they're never going to. Ever.

      I agree with you, it wouldn't be a problem if people engaged more than 4 of their neurons towards the end of not propagating spam and vi

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by maxume ( 22995 )

      Are you sure it is the recipients that are falling for the trickery?

      I don't have anything to back it up, but I think the people purchasing spamming services are now the ones driving much of it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by shentino ( 1139071 )

      Blaming the victim still doesn't let the spammers off the hook though.

      They're still responsible for giving the intertubes stress, hijacking people's computers, etc etc etc.

      And they did have enough electronic firepower to totally obliterate Blue Security.

    • Much of the spam I get is just one short sentence, followed by a link to a URL in Russia or somewhere. Are there actually people out there who would trust their charge card numbers or personal information to a website that does not look like a reputable company? The fact that such spam keeps getting sent out suggests that there must be enough responses to make it worthwhile.

      In the past, I used to get spam which appeared to be from a well know URL, but when I would hover the cursor over the link without clic

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Much of the spam I get is just one short sentence, followed by a link to a URL in Russia or somewhere. Are there actually people out there who would trust their charge card numbers or personal information to a website that does not look like a reputable company? The fact that such spam keeps getting sent out suggests that there must be enough responses to make it worthwhile.

        Probably not, actually. Just that some idiot with money asked about marketing services, handed over the cash, and walked away. I think

    • A friend of mine sent me an e-mail a few days ago that October is a very special month since it has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. It happens once in 875 years. If I send the mail to 8 people I will be rich, Rich, RICH!
      Do you think I didn't try to explain her that every time you have a month with 31 days that starts on Friday, this shit happens? Don't you think I went to the calendar and showed her 3 times in the last 4 years where it happened?
      Do you think it changed anything?
      People have always and w

  • ... busy holiday ... shopping season

    I seriously doubt this holiday shopping season will be "busy".

    • ...Why do you doubt that?

      I feel like I'm stumbling inside my head as I'm trying to figure out why you wouldn't think this holidy shopping season will be busy. It's been busy every year for as long as I can remember, why wouldn't this year be?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cwix ( 1671282 )

        I think hes implying the recession is going to hurt sales. It might not be quite as busy as it has in the past, but ive no doubt in my mind that it will still be a busy season.

    • Ever worked retail? It's *always* busy, no matter what, during the "holiday shopping season." Psychology alone ensures it, but throw societal and marketing issues on top, and it pretty much would take the apocalypse for it to not be busy.

  • ...that spam was cyclical?

  • All I want... (Score:4, Funny)

    by drcheap ( 1897540 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2010 @12:53PM (#33948518) Journal

    All I want for Christmas
    is my own bot net
    my own bot net
    see my own bot net.

  • "Celebrity gossip - including false alerts about the untimely deaths of high profile celebrities - is a common lure to get e-mail recipients to open malicious e-mail attachments."

    So the primary targets are those who actually care about cult of celebrity and those who never read anything about protecting yourself online, interesting.

    • So the primary targets are those who actually care about cult of celebrity and those who never read anything about protecting yourself online, interesting.

      I don't know about you, but I was fascinated to learn that Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Tiger Woods, Tom Cruise, Bon Jovi and a numerous other such people had all died on the exact same day in some bizarre celebrity massacre.

      (And no, I didn't open any of them.)

  • 2002 called - it wants its "help me deal with spam" article back.

    With only 16 comments in 90 minutes my thought is that your average Slashdot reader already has his/her spam problem solved. It's really a non-issue for most of us; let's get some real news for nerds here instead please.

  • 11/9 (Score:2)

    by gmuslera ( 3436 )
    Will be needed a major cyberterrorist attack till someone goes after the companies behind spam? Put all that are promoted thu spam in guantanamo (and the people they hired to do the spam) and people will start to think twice before going even close to that route. And that will kill most of the economical motivations of those botnets.

Slashdot Top Deals

What is research but a blind date with knowledge? -- Will Harvey

Close