spam

Not quite to the Max

The bottom line: A new name heralds some big changes for Trend Micro's Titanium suites. The overhaul to Maximum Security 2011 brings users a faster suite with a smaller system impact. There's a lot of extras to like here, too, but that's not enough to sell security on.

Review: Trend Micro's updates for 2011 bring a substantially overhauled suite, from the name down to its detection engine. Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 is the new name for Trend Micro Internet Security Pro, and along with the new nom de guerre comes a new interface, new … Read more

Report: 95 percent of all e-mail is spam

Spam accounted for 95 percent of all e-mail sent worldwide during the third quarter, according to a report released today.

Panda Security's third-quarter report (PDF) also found that 50 percent of all spam came from 10 countries, with India, Brazil, and Russia as the top three sources. The U.S. came in No. 8, while the U.K. dropped off the list. Much of the spam that invades in-boxes comes from botnets that hijack computers whose owners don't realize their PCs have been infected, the report noted.

Trojans now are responsible for 55 percent of all malware threats, … Read more

Reduce unwanted e-mails

SpamSieve is a powerful, popular spam-filtering app that can help you greatly reduce unwanted e-mails in Mail, Entourage, MailForge, Outlook 2011, and other e-mail clients. Because SpamSieve uses Bayesian filtering (a process that looks at the statistical probability of every word in an e-mail) and you train it using your own e-mail, the app actually becomes more effective over time. It learns not just how to better identify ever-changing spam but also how to zero in on the peculiarities of your own legitimate e-mail (whether that's using the names of your family members or your friends' frequent and obscure … Read more

AVG 2011 banks on better performance

The never-ending mantra chanted by security suite vendors sounds a lot like "faster scans, easier to use, better performance," and AVG has released a new version that it says accomplishes all three. AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011, available today exclusively from CNET Download.com, looks and feels like an overall better program.

The new AVG Free has a faster installation process. It's not as zippy as the minute-long installations that some of AVG's competitors offer. I found that the program can go from completed download to ready to use in about 5 minutes. A big contributing factor … Read more

Microsoft legal punch may change botnet battles forever

With court backing and a novel use of a civil procedure, Microsoft appears to be close to obliterating the Waledac spam botnet, changing the way online criminal operations are defeated.

A magistrate judge in federal court in Virginia is expected to recommend within days that the judge hearing Microsoft's case grant a default judgment, Richard Boscovich, a senior Microsoft attorney told CNET on Wednesday.

This would mean that the 276 Web domains deployed as Waledac command-and-control servers to provide instructions to thousands of infected computers would be forfeited to Microsoft, effectively shutting down the botnet for good, he said. … Read more

Facebook closes hole that let spammers auto-post to walls, friends

Facebook has closed a hole that was being used by spammers to automatically post wall messages and direct messages to friends, the company said on Tuesday.

Just clicking on the link to one of the applications that were taking advantage of the bug would allow the auto-posting to happen, Facebook said. The apps, which appeared to be sending people to a survey Web site, were disabled on Monday, the company said.

"Earlier this week, we discovered a bug that made it possible for an application to bypass our normal CSRF (cross-site request forgery) protections through a complicated series of … Read more

Apple's Ping dinged by spam

Apple's new social media service, Ping, is already getting hit by a barrage of comment spam.

The Ping network integrates with iTunes 10 to let you follow your favorite artists and swap comments with other fans. But it took less than 24 hours for the comments sections to be swamped by phony offers for free iPhones and other hot gadgets, according to a Thursday blog from security vendor Sophos.

Sophos expressed bemusement that although it's no secret that blogs and forums have become the new playing ground for spammers and scammers, Apple apparently has set up no spam … Read more

Priority Inbox sorts Gmail

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded: Priority Inbox sorts Gmail MySpace gives into Facebook iTunes song previews double NASA signs up for Flickr 10-inch Android tablet arrives

'LOL is this you?' spam spreading via Facebook chat

Facebook on Friday afternoon was investigating what appeared to be a new spam scheme that results in users getting messages from friends over Facebook chat that have malicious links.

The messages say "LOL is this you?" and are accompanied by a link that looks like it leads to a video on Facebook, one victim told CNET. In his case, clicking the link directed to a Web page with a "404-Page Not Found" error message and his account sent the spam out to at least one of his friends, he said.

The spam was also reported on Twitter, … Read more

Rustock botnet responsible for 39 percent of all spam

Botnets are now responsible for sending 95 percent of all spam, up from 84 percent in April, and almost half of that spam comes from a single botnet, Rustock.

Rustock sent 41 percent of the world's botnet spam in August, up from 32 percent in April. This is despite the network actually shrinking in size from 2.5 million to 1.3 million bots over the same period, security company Symantec said on Tuesday. This means Rustock is currently responsible for 39 percent of all the world's spam e-mails.

"Overall, the total amount of spam in circulation … Read more