Got my first Mimail-L virus email this morning. The social engineering is excellent. The header looks credible, the subject and address line plausible and the email itself is readable, literate and, while pornographic, a compelling storyline. It also got past my Bayesian spam filter which is unusual. My conclusion: this could be a nasty … Read more
Watch out for Mimail.L. During 1st and 2nd December 2003, MessageLabs has intercepted a number of copies of a further variant of the Mimail email worm – W32/Mimail.L. Here’s what to watch out for: The worm arrives as an attachment to an email with the subject line Re[2]. The emails arrive from spoofed addresses, … Read more
As I’ve suspected, there’s more money made in protecting us from spam than from spam itself. According to a report by Ferris Research quoted by TechWeb news, revenue for vendors selling anti-spam products will be approximately $130 million in 2003 and soar 200% in 2004 to a whopping $360 million. Revenue generated by spammers … Read more
Further to my post about the war between a spammer and three Dutch bloggers, I’ve heard from one of the bloggers, Bas Taart: I was one of the three bloggers that started the war on CustomerBlast (The spammer), and for the record, I’d like to say that I never went offline due to counterattacks. Customerblast.com … Read more
If anyone has been hit by the recent wave of ‘brand-spoofing’ spam or viruses — particularly those that appear to be from a bank, or from Paypal or eBay — could they please drop me a line? I’m very interested in following up on some of these cases for a future column. Reach me here. … Read more