spam

A judge has awarded Yahoo $610 million in a lawsuit against spammers who sent e-mails to people falsely telling them they had won a lottery prize from Yahoo.

The federal district court judge in New York ordered defendants, whom Yahoo did not identify, on Monday to pay Yahoo $27 million for trademark infringement, $583 million for violating the Can-Spam Act, and an unreleased sum for attorney's fees.

Yahoo filed the lawsuit in 2008, alleging that spammers were using the fake lottery e-mails to defraud people. The messages were designed to trick recipients into providing their bank and other information … Read more

Think you're seeing less junk mail in your inbox these days? If so, it's not just your imagination.

The rate of spam across the world has hit close to a three-year low and now encompasses just 70 percent of all e-mails, according to Symantec's November Intelligence Report (PDF).

That number is a healthy drop from 2009 when spam accounted for 90 percent of all global e-mails. And it's close to the 68 percent level seen in late 2008 after the spam hosting ISP McColo was shut down.

In particular, pharmaceutical spam is at its lowest level … Read more

Malware targeted toward Android devices continues to surge, says a new report from McAfee, pushing 2011 to become the busiest year in history for both mobile and general malware.

The amount of malware infecting Android devices during the third quarter grew almost 37 percent from the second quarter, according to McAfee's Third-Quarter Threats Report (PDF). Android's growing demand among consumers has made it an increasingly ripe and inviting target for cybercriminals.

How inviting? Almost all new mobile malware over the third quarter was aimed squarely at Android. Legacy software being what it is, though, among all mobile platforms, … Read more

Crude spam spreads on Facebook, the fight over an online piracy bill heats up, and Sony is working to distribute television channels through Net-connected TV sets as an alternative to cable.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

It's not comfortable for the home of FarmVille to be suddenly adorned with indigestible pictures of animal cruelty.

It also does little positive for Facebook's image of a safe and private bulletin board when there suddenly appear images of Justin Bieber doing things that might loosely be associated with fathering children.

And yet, as ZDNet revealed, newsfeeds of ordinary people have been positively awash in negative imagery.

It's hard to know just how much of it has been displayed. Technically, some might refer to this as gore-porn-linkspam. Others might prefer to think of it as just another … Read more

The ability to create filters for spam messages in Gmail can sometimes lead to filtering e-mail from real friends.

Besides going "filter happy" on your spam messages, Gmail may accidentally mark a friend's e-mail as spam simply because it mentions certain phrases or products. For situations like these, you can add a whitelist to your Gmail. This will help messages from people you know land in the inbox, and not the trash can.

Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account.

Step 2: Click on the Settings cog in the top-right corner and go to Mail settings.… Read more

Over the last year there have been many malware attacks on Facebook users. These suspicious links and apps will infect the user's timeline, messages, and even their friends' "walls." Norton offers a tool to help combat these threats, and it's very quick and easy to set up on your Facebook account. Here's how:

Step 1: Open Norton Safe Web for Facebook in your Web browser. If you're not already logged in to Facebook, you'll need to do that now.

Step 2: Authorize permission for the Norton app to scan your account.… Read more

With so many risks to your accounts and computer on the Web, wouldn't it be nice to know that none of the people you follow on Twitter are adding to those risks? Safego, a Bitdefender product, offers a free service that will scan your Twitter account for suspicious users, links, and messages. It won't take any action without your consent, but it can be set to alert you when a new issue arises. Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Head over to http://safego.bitdefender.com/twitter/

Step 2: Log in with your Twitter account. … Read more

The bottom line: The new Kaspersky Anti-Virus for 2012 introduces a dual cloud-and-local security system bundled under an overhauled interface that's both easy to use and familiar. The suite's scans aren't the fastest, but it definitely will protect you.

Review: Kaspersky Anti-Virus continues to provide users with a high level of protection that includes security tools not offered by many competitors. The 2012 version won't change the face of personal computer security, although this particular package of security options has attracted enough devotees to make it a best-selling program, both in and out of the security … Read more