New spam and virus techniques will be in full force with the holidays approaching, warns Camsoft, a local data security company and Commtouch (Nasdaq: CTCH) business partner.
Camsoft has warned of new techniques that spammers have recently been experimenting with to slip past anti-spam engines and into inboxes, presumably to take advantage of consumers over the festive season when many people will be making gift purchases.
For example, they disguised messages in PDF, Excel, and other popular file formats and this simple trick fools many anti-spam technologies and end-users alike, whose guards may be down when they recognise the popular file attachment ending.
"Spammers and malware distributors are the ultimate in test marketers," comments Commtouch`s Shlomo Levy. "They keep trying different techniques to bypass spam filters and ensure their messages have high response rates. In the future, you can expect to see other file formats such as Word and Powerpoint used for a similar purpose."
To counter the anticipated surge in spam over the festive season, Commtouch together with Camsoft has offered a 30-day free, no obligation and fully functional trial of their award-winning anti-spam gateway solution, to companies wanting to protect themselves over the holiday period.
"The software is dead-easy to install and will start working right away without any complicated pre-configuration, and because it uses Commtouch`s patented Recurrent Pattern Detection technology, it does not block legitimate mails," comments Grant Chapman of Camsoft. "With Commtouch`s offer, users can return to work in January confident that they don`t have to sort through thousands of spam messages, and IT managers can relax in the knowledge that they are protecting their organisation against spam-based malware during this period," adds Chapman.
For more details on Commtouch`s offer or to obtain the free trial download, please visit http://www.commtouch.com/Site/Products/Enterprise/free_trial.asp
or contact anthony@camsoft.co.za (Tel. 0800 616 765) www.commtouchantispam.co.za. Free telephonic and e-mail support for the duration of the trial is provided locally by Camsoft, with additional Internet support by Commtouch. Local on-site support is also available, if required.Global spam levels reached an all-time high of 95% of all e-mails at its peak during the quarter ending in September. It is anticipated that the current quarter will be no better and most likely a lot worse due to the festive season, which has historically attracted spammers wanting to reach consumers spending their money. Of significant importance is the increase in the number of blended threat messages - or spam messages with links to malicious URLs - which accounted for up to 8% of all global e-mail traffic during the peaks of various attacks during the quarter.
"E-mail-borne malware and phishing have become a major problem worldwide and in South Africa we`ve been witnessing unprecedented levels of scam attempts by spammers masquerading as helpdesk employees of the major banks in an attempt to get the banking details of unwary customers," comments Grant Chapman of Camsoft.
"These types of scam attempts by spammers used to be relatively crude and usually involved an offer to receive a large sum of money from the estate of a previously unknown relative in a West African country for which your banking details were required for the supposed transfer. The recent spate of scam mails that spammers would have you believe as originating from the banks, however, are now more sophisticated and usually include the bank`s logo and a credible looking Web and e-mail address.
"The Web site is typically malicious though, in that it is intended to either encourage you to submit your banking details in an online form, together with your PIN, or to at least send you a keylogger or spyware so that they can harvest your banking details when you next do your online banking. These particular spammers are even getting their syntax and spelling right in their spam e-mails, so it`s becoming very difficult to know what is legitimate bank correspondence, and before you know it you could have your account cleaned out," adds Chapman.
More details, including samples of PDF spam and spam messages containing malware, are presented in the Commtouch Q3 2007 Email Threats Trends Report, available from Commtouch at: http://www.commtouch.com/downloads/Commtouch_2007_Q3_Email_Threats.pdf.
Commtouch Recurrent Pattern Detection technology defends inboxes
Commtouch`s Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology protects against spam and virus attacks in real-time as they are mass-distributed over the Internet.
The unique content-agnostic technology detects and blocks spam in any language and is highly effective against various types of attachment spam and blended spam/malware threats.
Commtouch`s GlobalView Reputation Service dynamically blocks spam at the network perimeter based on the reputation of the sender.
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Commtouch Software (NASDAQ: CTCH) is dedicated to protecting and preserving the integrity of the world`s most important communications tool - e-mail. Commtouch has over 16 years of experience developing messaging software and is a global developer and provider of proprietary anti-spam, Zero-Hour virus protection and Reputation Service solutions. Using core technologies, including RPD (Recurrent Pattern Detection), the Commtouch Detection Center analyses billions of e-mail messages per week to identify new spam and malware outbreaks within minutes of their introduction onto the Internet. Integrated by scores of OEM partners, Commtouch technology protects thousands of organisations, with hundreds of millions of users in over 100 countries. For more information, see: http://www.commtouch.com. The site includes the Commtouch online lab detailing spam statistics and charts.
Recurrent Pattern Detection, RPD, Zero-Hour and GlobalView are trademarks, and Commtouch is a registered trademark, of Commtouch Software Ltd. US Patent number 6 330 590 is owned by Commtouch.
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