dagblog - Comments for "Spam War!"

I usually report spam as

AmiBlue — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:16:12 +0000

In reply to Those pop-ups aren't spam,

I usually report spam as inappropriate when I come across it in comment threads. Is my report annoying to web administrators? Should I just ignore it or is it helpful? Any thoughts?

Thanks.

When I was working at the

cmaukonen — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 01:21:21 +0000

In reply to Spam War!

When I was working at the Univ. one of my responsibilities was the campus mail server. I had that sucker locked down 8 ways to Sunday using Postfix and a lot of my own code.

I also did networking and had no problem blocking entire class B networks. One of the first was Sanford "Spamford" Wallace. He called me up and was really pissed. I told him that this was a state university and we had no obligation to accept connections of anything else from any commercial site, especially his.

"Don't make me angry. You won't like me when I'm angry."

Phishing is performed via

nothere — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:17:12 +0000

In reply to Thanks, cthtonic and

Phishing is performed via spam. While it can be targeted, it's commonly via spam; it's commonly directed at financial institutions; the stolen money is then laundered, commonly by money mules.

That set of activities is one way to define a criminal syndicate.

WRT to malware, yes it may have moved to 'surf a website and get hijacked' to some large degree; but spam is still used to propagate malware.

I thought these were common knowledge?

Thanks, cthtonic and

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 21:13:27 +0000

In reply to For starters, there is ROKSO,

Thanks, cthtonic and tmccarthy. I was thinking of spam as opposed to malware. They're related, and Spamhaus has accused Cyberbunker of hosting both, but I was focused on the spam. It would be interesting if criminals were also involved in the spam business.

Zeus is a well know malware

tmccarthy0 — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:34:34 +0000

In reply to That's interesting, chthonic.

Zeus is a well know malware used by a large criminal enterprise, sometimes referred to as the cyber mafia. In March of last year. Zeus steals credit card or banking information from unsuspecting users. It is definitely connected to a crime syndicate.

For starters, there is ROKSO,

nothere — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:47:05 +0000

In reply to That's interesting, chthonic.

For starters, there is ROKSO, which is at Spamhaus:

The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database collates information and evidence on known professional spam operations that have been terminated by a minimum of 3 Internet Service Providers for spam offenses.

Random choices:

Fujiko Kobayashi is a "deai" or dating spammer in Japan. Such spam tends to cross the boundary into pornographic images and may also be related to prostitution controlled by organized crime. This spammer is hitting cell phones very heavily with unsolicited text/SMS messages.

Alex Blood / Alexander Mosh / AlekseyB / Alex Polyakov:

Verimer-australia.com is the money laundering part of phishing scams.

Pavka / Artofit ROKSO Records: child porn payment processors

But if you are asking about known criminal syndicates, AKA mafia type organizations, I suggest Brian Krebs' work. He's recognized, and credible; he'll have something in his articles.

A quick sample:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/05/at-the-crossroads-of-ethieves-and-cy...

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/12/ukrainian-general-arrested-in-cyber-...

Does this answer your question?

That's interesting, chthonic.

Michael Wolraich — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:38:04 +0000

In reply to It should be noted out that

That's interesting, chthonic. Do you have a link about the criminal connection?

To be honest, I threw Youtube

Michael Wolraich — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:35:25 +0000

In reply to Thanks for the information.

To be honest, I threw Youtube in there somewhat speculatively because I also experienced lag, but I didn't find anyone mentioning any site other than Netflix. Given Maiello's link below, I wonder if Netflix ended up in the story the same way. Maybe someone just blamed the performance problems on the DDoS attack, and the rest of the media echoed it.

Ha. I wouldn't be that

Michael Wolraich — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:29:56 +0000

In reply to Not that it affects any of

Ha. I wouldn't be that surprised. The explanation for how this DDoS flooded into Netflix didn't quite make sense. Perhaps there was an unrelated slowdown.

That said, this guy didn't seem to have followed up with Akamai's chief architect, who also attested to disruptive effects.

Our Netflix did grind to a

Donal — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:59:07 +0000

In reply to Not that it affects any of

Our Netflix did grind to a halt last Saturday evening, with about twenty minutes left in an episode of Foyle's War. We couldn't reconnect. Occasionally two or three of us are on laptops while streaming, but that night we were alone.