Trick or Treat: Internet Zombies Scare Up Halloween Spam

  
    
  
  
    
      While children put the finishing touches on their costumes for tomorrow’s 
      Halloween holiday, spammer-activated zombie networks have been busy 
      sending out Halloween-related spam messages to unsuspecting Internet 
      users. Commtouch (Nasdaq:CTCH), the leading OEM provider of anti-spam, 
      Zero-Hour virus outbreak protection and IP Reputation services to 
      messaging, security and networking companies, has identified thousands 
      of Halloween-related spam attacks in recent days.
    
    
      Spammers have found creative Halloween-related titles for traditional 
      spam themes:
    
    
      
        “Absolutely single!!! Halloween matches!!!!!!” 
        -- for dating/love spam
      
      
        “Super Halloween cash drawing … 
        sign up now” -- for get rich quick/gambling
      
      
        Pharmaceutical spam turns into: “Check 
        out our special limited time offers on prescriptions. Halloween”
      
      
        Self-help is now: “Smokers cough? 
        Quit for life. Halloween”
      
      
        And Halloween is sometimes added for diversion: “We 
        can fix your stamina in the bedroom. Halloween”
      
    
    
      “Spammers hide behind the mask of anonymity 
      on the Internet, taking advantage of the fact that unprotected end-users 
      may be looking for Halloween-related messages,” 
      said Amir Lev, Commtouch’s CTO. “One 
      essential technique to see behind the spammers’ 
      camouflage is to treat messages based on the reputation of the senders, 
      rejecting those that have poor sender reputation. Since zombie-networks 
      tend to come to life suddenly, and then die an equally rapid death, only 
      a real-time IP Reputation solution can stay on top of the ever-changing 
      zombie landscape. This, in conjunction with a content-agnostic spam 
      filter, which ignores diversions like ‘Halloween,’ 
      can provide an accurate and effective solution to the Halloween spam 
      problem.”
    
    
      About Commtouch
    
    
      Commtouch Software Ltd. (NASDAQ:CTCH) is dedicated to protecting and 
      preserving the integrity of the world's most important communications 
      tool -- e-mail. Commtouch has over 15 years of experience developing 
      messaging software and is a global developer and provider of proprietary 
      anti-spam, Zero-Hour virus protection, and IP Reputation solutions. 
      Using core technologies including RPD (Recurrent Pattern Detection™), 
      the Commtouch Detection Center analyzes billions of email messages per 
      month to identify new spam and malware outbreaks within minutes of their 
      introduction into the Internet. Integrated by more than 50 OEM partners, 
      Commtouch technology protects thousands of organizations, with over 50 
      million users in over 100 countries. Commtouch is headquartered in 
      Netanya, Israel, and has a subsidiary in Mountain View, Calif. For more 
      information, see: www.commtouch.com. 
      The site includes the Commtouch online lab detailing spam statistics and 
      charts.
    
  
While children put the finishing touches on their costumes for
tomorrow's Halloween holiday, spammer-activated zombie networks have
been busy sending out Halloween-related spam messages to unsuspecting
Internet users. Commtouch (Nasdaq:CTCH), the leading OEM provider of
anti-spam, Zero-Hour virus outbreak protection and IP Reputation
services to messaging, security and networking companies, has
identified thousands of Halloween-related spam attacks in recent days.

   Spammers have found creative Halloween-related titles for
traditional spam themes:

   --  "Absolutely single!!! Halloween matches!!!!!!" -- for
        dating/love spam

   --  "Super Halloween cash drawing ... sign up now" -- for get rich
        quick/gambling

   --  Pharmaceutical spam turns into: "Check out our special limited
        time offers on prescriptions. Halloween"

   --  Self-help is now: "Smokers cough? Quit for life. Halloween"

   --  And Halloween is sometimes added for diversion: "We can fix
        your stamina in the bedroom. Halloween"

   "Spammers hide behind the mask of anonymity on the Internet,
taking advantage of the fact that unprotected end-users may be looking
for Halloween-related messages," said Amir Lev, Commtouch's CTO. "One
essential technique to see behind the spammers' camouflage is to treat
messages based on the reputation of the senders, rejecting those that
have poor sender reputation. Since zombie-networks tend to come to
life suddenly, and then die an equally rapid death, only a real-time
IP Reputation solution can stay on top of the ever-changing zombie
landscape. This, in conjunction with a content-agnostic spam filter,
which ignores diversions like 'Halloween,' can provide an accurate and
effective solution to the Halloween spam problem."

   About Commtouch

   Commtouch Software Ltd. (NASDAQ:CTCH) is dedicated to protecting
and preserving the integrity of the world's most important
communications tool -- e-mail. Commtouch has over 15 years of
experience developing messaging software and is a global developer and
provider of proprietary anti-spam, Zero-Hour virus protection, and IP
Reputation solutions. Using core technologies including RPD (Recurrent
Pattern Detection(TM)), the Commtouch Detection Center analyzes
billions of email messages per month to identify new spam and malware
outbreaks within minutes of their introduction into the Internet.
Integrated by more than 50 OEM partners, Commtouch technology protects
thousands of organizations, with over 50 million users in over 100
countries. Commtouch is headquartered in Netanya, Israel, and has a
subsidiary in Mountain View, Calif. For more information, see:
www.commtouch.com. The site includes the Commtouch online lab
detailing spam statistics and charts.