Spammer Anti-CAPTCHA operations and Mass-Mailing Strategy

Slashdot It! Websense® Security Labs™ Threatseeker™ technology has been continually monitoring spammer strategy and related tactics following the streamlined Anti-CAPTCHA operations on Microsoft’s Live Mail, Google’s Gmail, Microsoft’s Live Hotmail, Google’s Blogger, and Yahoo Mail (as reported by InformationWeek). Websense has observed that these spammer accounts increasingly represent several execution stages of a sophisticated strategy adopted by spammers. Websense predictions about this strategy, made originally at the time of the Anti-CAPTCHA operations, have proven to be accurate. The spammers are now using these accounts for additional, random attacks that include sophisticated new methods. For the spammers, the entire attack strategy includes more than registering email accounts using Anti-CAPTCHA operations; sending mass emails over the Internet; infecting thousands of user machines; and stealing information. In addition, spammers want to increase the overall time a spam campaign survives online and make it increasingly difficult to trace the campaign back. To this end, they use randomized, complex networks, through which they advertise their products and services. To achieve success, spammers have been using a combination of tactics at different levels in their attacks. This combination of tactics can be conceptualized in three different stages. Stage 1: Spammers using Anti-CAPTCHA registered accounts for mass-mailing purposes Anti-CAPTCHA registrations of Microsoft Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail, Google’s Gmail, and Yahoo Mail accounts have already brought a certain level of success to spammers. To some extent, spammers can defeat Antispam filters that rely heavily on Reputation-based detection by using these Anti-CAPTCHA accounts for spamming from their corresponding (well-reputed) email service providers. Via WebSense Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post