AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, Earthlink sue spammers

Lots of articles today about America Online Inc., Yahoo Inc., Earthlink Inc. and Microsoft Corp. all filing suits in federal courthouses around the country, alleging violations of the federal anti-spam law passed late last year and of state statutes.
Washington Post Article

AOL support Microsoft's Sender ID

America Online is today announcing its support of the newly submitted version of an email authentication technology known as Sender ID and advanced by our key partner in the antispam crusade, Microsoft Corporation.
BusinessWire Article

Microsoft Revises Anti-Spam Standard

As Microsoft and other industry leaders announce the latest progress in the fight against malicious spammers, Microsoft's anti-spam general manager explains the revised Sender ID Framework proposal submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Microsoft Article

Four in court over 'phishing' charges

The Financial Times is reporting that four Europeans were in court yesterday to face charges to defraud internet banks for "phishing scams".
The two men and two women from Russia, Estonia and Ukraine, were allegedly part of a gang that fraudulently took money from online consumers' accounts, after duping customers into giving them their banking details. The National High-Tech Crime Unit says this is the first time in the world charges relating to phishing have been pressed. The four - aged between 25 and 34 and all living in London - have been charged with one count each of conspiracy to defraud financial institutions and of conspiracy to money launder. All four were refused bail at Bow Street magistrates court and were remanded to appear in Southwark crown court for a preliminary hearing on October 21.

Industry Announcements

• Netriplex today announced that it has released a free version of its highly acclaimed anti-spam solution specifically engineered to meet the needs of small business.
  
• PhishGuard Corporation today launched their FREE anti-phishing service to detect and disable Internet "phishing" and "spoofing" attacks.
  
• CyberGuard announced the availability of the CyberGuard WW1000 Content Security Appliance, which integrates Webwasher’s Content Security Management (CSM) Suite into a full content security management device.
  

First settlement for the Can-Spam Act

DC Enterprises has agreed to settle a spam-related case with the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, marking a resolution of the first state case under the federal Can-Spam Act, state regulators announced Monday. 
ComputerWorld Article

Worldwide Spam Crackdown

Representatives from worldwide governments, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, are meeting in London this week to discuss how a united front can help to crack down on the problem of unsolicited bulk e-mail.  A Daily Star article reports that spam now makes up more than 60% of email traffic, up from 10% in 2001, according to new figures from the Office of Fair Trading.

Industry Announcements

• SurfControl released the newest version of its e-mail filtering software to protect enterprises against the full array of e-mail borne threats that are rapidly escalating in volume, sophistication and harm potential.
  
• Symantec announced that CSO Magazine and Alta Associates, an information security recruitment firm, presented Linda McCarthy, executive security advisor for Symantec, with the 2004 Private Solutions Provider Woman of Influence award for information security.
  
• Postini announced that it ranked as the leading antispam solution in a survey of IT executives at top law firms.
  
• Tumbleweed announced that it has formed a distribution agreement with Zones, Inc., a single-source direct marketing reseller of name-brand information technology products.
  
• Akonix, a leading provider of secure, multi-network enterprise instant messaging (IM), announced record revenues in Q3 2004 and a doubling of both revenues and new customers from the previous quarter. Akonix added 190,000 new seat licenses and ended the third quarter with over 400 customers and more than 500,000 seats deployed.

Keeping track of cyberslackers Web and e-mail monitoring by bosses becoming common in the workplace

Big Brother may not be watching you, but Big Employer probably is.
SF Chronicle Article

Consolidated News

• SurfControl has supplied its powerful Web filtering technology to the leader in real-time, high performance Internet content security solutions, StreamShield Networks.
  
• Symantec announced the acquisition of @stake, originally announced on Sept. 16, 2004, has been completed.
  
• Commtouch announced today that the Commtouch Spam Detection Center analyzed hundreds of millions of spam messages in the month of September 2004 and found that in the first 3 weeks of the month the amount of spam was less than the amount for the first three weeks in August, which was a record month for spam outbreaks.
  
• Global cooperation on network security, law enforcement and heightened consumer awareness is needed to help shield internet users from spam, said the Office of Fair Trade today at a conference of international spam enforcement agencies in London.

Spammers use opt-out button to hijack computers

Inventive spammers can send junk mail on computers commandeered from email users who hit the "unsubscribe" link in junk mail, security experts have discovered.
The latest spamming trick uses the opt-out feature on spam mail to turn computers into "open proxies" that allow unauthorised users, or hackers, to remotely control a computer and send spam.
Financial Review

Consolidated News

• FrontBridge announced that spam volumes reached a record peak of 91 percent on Sept. 12 and hit a monthly average of 85 percent, an increase of three percent from August.
  
• Tumbleweed unveiled Tumbleweed Email Firewall 6.0™, the latest generation of Tumbleweed's award-winning email security gateway.
  
• Yesterday, the FTC has submitted a recent report to Congress with recommendations on how to reward people who come forward and supply information on violations of the CAN-SPAM Act that was passed last year. In addition to other proposals, the FTC recommends that reward amounts should be in the range of $100,000, and as high as $250,000 in some cases.
  

Fighting Phish, Fakes and Frauds

The Internet makes identity theft almost laughably easy. Phishing - or the practice of sending e-mails and using fake Web sites that spoof a legitimate business in order to dupe unsuspecting customers into sharing personal and financial data - requires minimal effort and capital. "A lot of drug lords are getting into phishing," says Avivah Litan, a vice president and research director at Gartner.
CIO Magazine Article

Legislation aims to block spyware

Help! There's a spy in my computer.
These words, and coarser ones, are being voiced by legions of Internet users whose hard drives are infiltrated by what is commonly called spyware. The term describes a broad range of software, often downloaded to a home computer without the user's knowledge, that can lead to identity theft and frustration.
San Francisco Chronicle Article

Banks Join Group To Battle Phishing

An article in InformationWeek reports that the Financial Services Technology Consortium said 11 financial institutions--which include Citicorp, J.P. Morgan Chase, Comerica, Visa USA, ABN Amro, KeyBank, Capital One, and University Bank--will define technical and operating requirements for counter-phishing measures, and clarify the infrastructure fit, requirements, and impact of technologies when deployed in concert with customer education, enforcement, and other industry initiatives.
InformationWeek Article

Consolidated News

• Postini announced it has obtained a Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS 70) audit report for its email managed service.
  
• Sane Solutions, developers of the NetTracker(R) line of Web analytics software, and SurfControl today announced a new OEM partnership.

Announcements

• The FSTC counter-phishing initiative announced on September 20 is attracting some of the industry's most prominent financial institutions and technology vendors, according to Gene Neyer, Managing Executive of FSTC's effort.
  
• Network World reports that SurfControl plans to upgrade its e-mail filter to catch phishing attacks, and flag more spam and other abuses. SurfControl's E-mail Filter 5.0 is slated for release next week.
  
• CNET reports that Microsoft plans to offer its own anti-spyware software. Gates said Microsoft will offer software to detect malicious applications and that the company will keep it up-to-date on an ongoing basis.

Going after Kingpin Spammers

The Washington Post reports that a new law aimed at prosecuting big-time Internet spammers, among others, will become effective today in Maryland.  The law is designed to go after "kingpin" spammers, who send out more than 10 deceptive e-mails in a day or 1,000 in a year.