Spammers have been taking over unsuspecting computer users’ machines for years in order to send out unwanted e-mails, but recently they have been getting even more aggressive. The SANS Institute (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) recently reported that a large, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack has targeted several organizations that attempt to fight spam: Spamhaus, SURBL (Spam URI Realtime Blocklists), URIBL (Realtime URI Blacklist), and Rules Emporium (the host site for the open-source SpamAssassin program). As of this writing, the Rules Emporium and URIBL are still under attack and are unreachable.
The attacks are similar to last year’s DDoS assault on BlueSecurity (makers of the community-based antispam tool BlueFrog) and are believed to be using the same malware to do their nasty work. The software in question is called Storm, which is a trojan distributed as an e-mail attachment. When a user opens the attachment and runs the trojan, it attempts to link up to other infected hosts via peer-to-peer networking. Once a connection is made, it downloads a series of five second-stage executables which set up an SMTP relay, an e-mail address stealer, an e-mail virus spreader, a DDoS attack tool, and finally an updated copy of the Storm Worm dropper. The master component is run from a kernel rootkit driver that embeds itself into Windows’ services.exe process.
| These guys are not only extremely irritating to the average person or business but are also real Scumbags! The fight against spam is turning into a full scale war. |
I guess we should have seen that coming….
Steve Gibson gives a detailed account of his DDos attack. Scary stuff when dealing with a “cyberpunk.”
“Once we determined how to block this attack and
returned to the Internet, 1,072,519,399 blocked
packets were counted before the attack ended.”
http://www.grc.com/dos/drdos.htm
Even more disturbing:
China’s military has developed cyberwarfare first-strike capabilities that include units charged with developing viruses to attack enemy computer networks, a Department of Defense (DoD) report warned.
http://tinyurl.com/yrds3a
“Hey you kids…get off my computer!!!
Junkmailfilter.com IS still online!
I get no SPAM (or DDoS)
http://www.junkemailfilter.com/spam/
Earlier this year Marine General James Cartwright talked to congress about the inevitability of offensive cyberattack from foreign sources. Seeing how Internet-based organizations can be effectively attacked by non-government-backed organizations should drive this point home even further.
Bruce Schneier blogged about General Cartwright’s comments and offensive cyberwarfare here: http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0704.html#9
I dont get the picture? What do the band “the transplants” have to do with spammers? granted they are punks, but not cyber punks or spammers. whats happened to the “i get no spam?” or just a tin of spam?
very confused
#6 – A picture of a lame new wave/pop band like Information Society would have been more relevant, I think.
Actually, if you want a good band, Barcelona is perfect, if a little dated. It’s a band made up of three UNIX admins… but I can’t seem to find a picture 🙂 However, their (now) old single “I’ve Got The Password (to your shell account)” is a classic.
Well, they had a thuggish look to them.
Give me Alot of internet control,
And abit of bank control…
And a crack tracer team…
And I think I could crack these folks.
These are the idiots that should be sent to guantanamo.
It’s not just China…..Estonia and a couple other of the small former Soviet colonies in Eastern Europe had massive cyber attacks from Russian origin after they made nice with NATO and thumbed their noses at Putin. The attacks were renewed a month ago and shut down just about everything even half important in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, when Estonia took down the Soviet soldier statue in the center of their capitol and moved it to a Soviet cemetary. The other 2 countries defended Estonia to Russia and then they were overwhelmed with cyber attacks…..all originating from Russia.
It’s too bad that California’s vigilante spam-hunting bill got superseded by the federal government’s CAN-SPAM legislation. It’s the only plan I’ve hear of that seems like it would have had an impact.
I’ve also always wondered why messages reside on the recipient’s server after sending, rather than staying on the sender’s server until they are picked up. Seems that this would deter spam as well.
The only way to stop spam will be when every nation gets involved. The simple way to force any specific country to stop the flow of spam is to stop ALL financial transactions to that country. So if we import goods from China and China can’t get paid then they might do something about the spammers.
These DoS attacks are terrorism and deserve this and all nation’s attention.
This is not remotely news. Spammers have been pulling this trick for a decade at least, now. Try to keep up, right?