E-Mail:

spam

Author Avatar

Google May Hate the Word ‘Spam’

I have a Google email account that I use exclusively to communicate with people in the security community. It is an extremely important resource for me and an address that security people know that I check regularly.
A strange thing has been happening with Google email lately.
When someone emails me a note with […]

Author Avatar

Spam Spoofing CNN News Continues

The spam attack which spoofs a CNN news service continues. It is a malware security risk and the distribution is on a large scale:
“…According to MX Logic Inc., spam posing as CNN.com Top 10 lists peaked at close to 11 million messages per hour early Thursday, but remained at high volumes throughout the day […]

Author Avatar

Spammer Receives Thirty Months of Jail Time

At least one spammer will be going to jail. It is jail time plus a significant amount to financial restitution:
“NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A Brooklyn man was sentenced to more than two years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty last year to sending unsolicited “spam” emails to about 1.2 million subscribers of Time Warner […]

Author Avatar

The Spam-as-Free-Speech Argument

A convicted felon is appealing his spam conviction. His lawyer is arguing that the legislation against spam violated free speech:
“…Lawyer Thomas M. Wolf said the state law that makes bulk e-mailing a felony is unconstitutional because it fails to distinguish between commercial messages, which are not covered by the First Amendment, and protected political […]

Author Avatar

Spam Email Is Not Free Speech

The Virginia Supreme Court has upheld the first felony conviction for spam email. Spam is not protected as a constitutional right to free speech. The spammer was convicted to a nine year prison sentence.
“…Prosecutors presented evidence of 53,000 illegal e-mails Jaynes sent over three days in July 2003. But authorities believe […]

Author Avatar

One Spammer Sends 2.2 Billion Emails

There has been an arrest of a spammer in Japan who sent 2.2 billion spam messages. That is an astounding number.
Let’s do some calculation of what might have been possible. For the sake of ease, round numbers are used for this example. Assume that there were just two billion spam […]

Author Avatar

Massachusetts Tax Payers Become Prime Phishing Targets

The people who spam and phish for data must be celebrating. There is good news for Massachusetts tax payers:
“The Internal Revenue Service is putting out an all-points bulletin for Massachusetts tax payers who are collectively owed $3 million in refunds - or an average of more than $1,000 each.”
link: IRS wants to refund […]