CAUCE

spamNEWS 09/28/2013

CAUCE posts regularly on topics related to spam. Here are our picks of the most interesting news items of the day.

You can follow them in real time on Twitter on Google +  or on LinkedIn

Facebook wins $3M injunction against spammer Steven Vachani aka Power.com http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57604866-93/facebook-wins-$3m-injunction-against-spammer/

Revealed: UK secretly arrested 16-year old boy for world’s ‘biggest’ DDoS-attack http://rt.com/news/uk-boy-arrested-ddos-attack-411/

Data Broker Giants Hacked by ID Theft Service http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/09/data-broker-giants-hacked-by-id-theft-service/

DMARC Forward Reporting: Why Network Owners Should be Informed, too http://blog.abusix.com/2013/09/24/dmarc-forward-reporting-why-network-owners-should-be-informed-too/

LinkedIn Class Action http://www.linkedinclassaction.com

A Study of Whois Privacy and Proxy Service Abuse by @MAAWG STA Dr. Richard Clayton http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2013/09/25/a-study-of-whois-privacy-and-proxy-service-abuse/

Is Fake iMessage App Malware or Not? http://www.enterprise-security-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=121000A6NWYX&nl=7

Do not use iMessage Chat for Android – it’s not safe [Updated] @digitaltrends http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/imessage-chat-android-security-flaw/#ixzz2gDyzRIv1

ICANN and Your Internet Abuse By Garth Bruen @circleid http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130924_icann_and_your_internet_abuse/

Twitter's User Growth Slows, Perhaps As A Result Of Spam Account Purges Ahead Of IPO http://www.businessinsider.com.au/twitters-user-growth-slows-2013-9

Spam Arrest's Sender Agreement Fails Because Email Marketer's Employees Lacked Authority http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130919_spam_arrests_sender_agreement_fails/

Apple's a tasty phishing target for scammers http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049287/apple-is-a-tempting-phishing-target-for-scammers.html

Ransomware Puts Your System To Work Mining Bitcoins http://blog.malwarebytes.org/intelligence/2013/09/ransomware-puts-your-system-to-work-mining-bitcoins/

KETLER INVESTMENTS CC vs. South African INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS’ ASSOCIATION http://badwhois.info/Ketler_Invest_v_ISPA_JMNT_REVISED.PDF

SpamNEWS 09/17/2013

CAUCE posts regularly on topics related to spam. Here are our picks of the most interesting news items of the day.

You can follow them in real time on Twitter on Google +  or on LinkedIn

 

"Rachel from Card Service's" real name(s) are Willy Plancher and Valbona Toska and the The FTC just slapped them hard.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2013/09/ambrosia.shtm

OPT IN CANADA!
CAUCE Board member Shaun Brown is presenting at a ConstantContact webinar on Canada's Anti-Spam Law 09/26
http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/business/223668331.html

CAUCE President John Levine on 'How not to stop spammers' - an analysis of the @spamarrest lawsuit http://t.co/5VimZhghLB
http://jl.ly/Email/spamarrest.html?seemore=y

ICANN WHOIS Privacy Plan Draws Fire - Brian Krebs
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/09/whois-privacy-plan-draws-fire/

Spammers Daniel Pessin and Jacob Engel Settle FTC Charges They Sent Consumers Bogus Offers for "Free" Gift Cards
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2013/09/rentbro.shtm

The Story Behind The New Twitter Spam Epidemic
http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/heres-the-person-responsible-for-all-that-pesky-twitter-list

Court rules that proxy registrations and flaky opt-out info violate CAN SPAM

A Utah court recently ruled in a CAN SPAM case Zoobuh vs. Better Broadcasting et al. The decision has two interesting aspects. The spammer used proxy registrations to hide the WHOIS contact information on the return addresses, which the court declared was a CAN SPAM violation, the first time a Federal court has said so.

Also, the required notices about how to opt out were not in the spam itself, but were (in theory at least) in images on remote web servers that the spam referred to. Noting that many mail programs don't show remote images for security reasons, the court found that they weren't an adequate opt-out.

The defendants never replied to the suit and defaulted, so even though the court awared over $1 million, there's little chance the plaintiffs will ever see any of  it. But this is a useful precedent for other people who want to use what little anti-spam protection CAN SPAM provides.

CAUCE president John Levine wrote in more detail in his blog.

Boston Marathon Scams

Don't Be Scammed

Predictably, within hours of the tragic bombings yesterday that took place in Boston, scam domains in their hundreds, and fake social media pages began to spring up. To profit from a tragedy is contemptible, and CAUCE officers are doing their level best to ensure these domains are blocked, and taken down as quickly as possible.

Like you, we all mourn those who had their lives taken from them in Boston, and stand with those who were injured and affected by these vile deeds.

If you want to contribute in some way, please donate blood or money to the Red Cross. Go directly to their website here : http://www.redcross.org/news/press-release/Red-Cross-Statement-on-Boston-Marathon-Explosions 

Dennis Dayman is a Distinguished Fellow of the Ponemon Institute

CAUCE Board member Dennis Dayman announces he was just named a Distinguished Fellow by the Ponemon Institute, a research center dedicated to privacy, data protection and information security policies.

Ponemon Institute Fellows represent some of the top privacy and security strategists in the world, associated with many of the leading brands in this space. The organization helps provide both the private and public sectors with a clearer understanding of the trends, perceptions and potential threats that will affect the collection, management and safeguarding of personal and confidential information. Ponemon Distinguished Fellows are nominated and selected by their peers. http://www.ponemon.org/ponemon-institute-fellows

Congratulations, Dennis!

Are You Donating to a Real Charity?

Please share this post.

After a tragedy, many of us want to donate to funds and charities to show our support for a community.

However, scam charities immediately pop up, looking to steal your well intentioned donations. There are at least 30 newly-registered domains created in the past 48 hours related to the tragic shootings at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut: Most, probably all are scams and rip-offs. How then, to donate so that your funds make it to the deserving victims?

Check out Charity Navigator, an online database that assesses charities based upon revenues, operating costs, and the percentage of funds that make it to the intended recipients.

Donate to the Red Cross / Red Crescent / Magen David Adom. The International Red Cross is a stalwart organization that is reliable, and extremely well-run. The Red Cross of America has a fund for the families and survivors of the Sandy Hook shootings.

News site CNN usually will make mention of an appropriate charity. They report that the United Way of Western Connecticut have set up a Sandy Hook School Support Fund at https://newtown.uwwesternct.org/

If you encounter what you believe to be a scam charity, report them to your local police, federal government or police force, and to the Internet Crime Complaint Center

CAUCE, MAAWG, London Action Plan release "Best Practices to Address Online and Mobile Threats" Report

New Online and Mobile Best Practices Clarify Business and Governmental Security Tactics




Baltimore, Oct. 24, 2012 – A cooperative international report available today outlines
Internet and mobile best practices aimed at curtailing malware, phishing, spyware, bots
and other Internet threats, and provides a thorough review of current and emerging
threats.  “Best Practices to Address Online and Mobile Threats” is a comprehensive
assessment of Internet security as it stands today and explains in non-technical language
the proactive steps that can help mitigate risks, according to the report’s two major
contributors, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) and the
London Action Plan (LAP).

The report is also one of the first global efforts to encourage governments to deploy best
practices, which are more often associated with businesses.  It focuses on four major
areas of concern: malware and botnets, social engineering and phishing, IP and DNS
exploits, and mobile threats. To encourage government participation, it has been
presented to the 34-member country OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Development) for
review.

“Best Practices to Address Online and Mobile Threats” draws on the tactics that have
proven effective over the past decade to reduce online risks, then augments these with
forward-thinking recommendations for emerging vulnerabilities, such as mobile text spam
and Web abuse. The comprehensive report is available here:



Download Best_Practices_to_Address_Online_and_Mobile_Threats_(Oct_2012)

The report is also available via the London Action Plan site and by way of the Messaging
Anti-Abuse Working Group site.

“As a globally cooperative effort, the report brought together an unprecedented team of
experts who outlined safe computing tactics in uncomplicated, accessible language for
end-users, large and small businesses, and governments. This is also one of the first
efforts to update industry recommendations recognizing that public agencies are important
online enterprises, and just as companies need to implement best practices, so do
governments,” Alex Bobotek, M3AAWG co-chairman said.

CAUCE President John Levine noted "We were honored to work with Industry Canada, M3AAWG,
and the other organizations. Online security is such a massive problem that working
partnerships among governments, business, and non-profits such as CAUCE is the only
logical way forward to deal with these issues."

The international community collaboratively stepped up to generate the report in a
public-private partnership led by André Leduc, Manager of the National Anti-Spam Coordinating
Body at Industry Canada. Industry experts from M3AAWG, LAP and other
organizations, such as CAUCE, contributed to it.
CAUCE President John Levine, and Executive Director Neil Schwartzman were part of the
Paris delegation that presented the report to the OECD committee on consumer protection,
it was also reviewed by the Working Party on Information Security and Privacy (WPISP).

Online threats are evolving as Internet and mobile technologies play a more vital role in
many business models, attracting cybercriminals who target users on popular platforms such
as laptops, tablets, smartphones and other handheld devices. As the Internet economy
grows, implementing the best practices detailed in the report will help reduce illegal
activities such as spam, phishing, malware and spyware distribution, botnet deployment,
the redirection of Internet traffic to malicious websites and denial of service attacks.

e360 vs. Spamhaus is over, e360 wins three bucks

Four years ago a bulk mailer called e360 sued the Spamhaus Project for a broad range of alleged evils interfereing with e360's allegedly highly successful email marketing business, which most of the rest of us considered to be spamming to sell junk. Due to a variety of unfortunate legal moves on both sides, it's dragged on for years. I blogged about it last year when the trial court decided that of the three causes for damage that e360 had alleged, two showed nothing, so he got a nominal $1 each, but for the third, for lost business, he awarded $27,000. Spamhaus, now ably represented pro bono by Jenner and Block, appealed on the basis that the judge had misinterpreted e360's numbers, which were in any event not credible.

Today the appeals court ruled in Spamhaus' favor, reducing the third award to $1, for a total of $3, which Spamhaus (or more likely their friends in the US) will pay. In appeals cases, the loser has to pay the winner's costs, so Jenner and Block will presumably be going after e360 for that.

For more analysis see Laura Atkins' Word to the Wise, Mickey Chandler's Spamtacular, and Venkat Balasubramani at Circle ID.