Spam King Gets 30 Months Jail for 27 Million Message Spam Campaign

The self-proclaimed Spam King, Sandford Wallace, has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for a Facebook spam campaign conducted between November 2008 and February 2009.

Wallace hacked approximately 550,000 Facebook accounts and used those accounts to post spam messages to users’ walls which directed their Facebook followers to webpages which harvested login credentials and other personal information.

For each account that was compromised, Wallace gathered details of the users’ friends and posted spam messages to their walls. Wallace used an automated script to sign into the hacked accounts and post spam messages. In total, more than 27 million spam messages were sent via those accounts. Wallace was allegedly paid for sending traffic to websites via the spam messages. Wallace’s activities earned him the nickname “Spamford” Wallace.

It has been widely reported that Wallace was a career spammer, having first made a business out of spamming in the 1990’s with a company called Cyber Promotions. The company was reportedly sending around 30 million spam emails a day.

Wallace had been found guilty of Internet offenses in civil cases in the past, resulting in a fine of $4 million in 2006 for use of malicious popup adverts and a fine of $230 million for phishing attacks via MySpace in 2008. This is the first time the spam king has received a criminal conviction for his online activities.

Wallace was indicted in 2011 for the improper accessing of Facebook accounts and for sending unsolicited adverts on three occasions, spread over a period of 4 days. He was banned from accessing Facebook, yet violated the court order resulting in a charge of criminal contempt of court. Wallace was released on a bond, and while he was due to be sentenced in December, the case had to be delayed after two of Wallace’s lawyers quit.

The Spam King’s campaigns have resulted in him being ordered to pay more than $1 billion in damages, although Wallace was unable to pay the civil fines.

Wallace was convicted of one count of fraud and related activity in connection with electronic mail and one count of criminal contempt. The Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California recently announced the sentence, which was passed down by Judge Edward J. Davila.

In addition to the jail term, the spam king has been ordered to pay fines of over $310,000. Wallace could have received a maximum jail term of three years. Wallace will also be required to undergo 5 years of supervised release once the sentence has been served. That sentence begins on Sept, 7, 2016.

JavaScript Spam Emails Used to Deliver Locky

Researchers at a number of Internet security firms have discovered a surge in JavaScript spam emails in recent months. The emails are being used to download Locky ransomware onto users’ devices and the problem is getting more severe.

The volume of JavaScript spam emails is increasing, as is the frequency of spam email campaigns. The attacks first started in early February, spiking in March/early April. There was something of a lull around the middle of April, yet by the end of the month the campaigns started again at an increased level. Volumes of JavaScript spam emails continued to rise throughout May.

JavaScript Spam Emails Being Favored by Spammers

The latest wave of JavaScript spam emails is being sent from IP addresses in India and Vietnam, and while the United States and Canada have not escaped, the emails are predominantly being used to target users in Europe. The emails contain a ZIP file containing malicious JavaScript files. If the user opens and unzips the file and opens a file, the JavaScript is executed and silently runs via the Windows Script Host Service (WSH) and downloads an intermediate malware known as JS/Danger.ScriptAttachment. This malware will then download Locky ransomware, although the attackers could easily update the campaign to deliver different malicious payloads. One security firm has reported that the wave of JavaScript spam emails is the biggest spam email campaign seen in recent years.

There are no known fixes for Locky ransomware infections. If Locky is installed on a computer, the users’ only defense is to restore encrypted files from a backup or face losing them permanently. This campaign masks the JavaScript with a XOR encryption algorithm to reduce the likelihood of detection.

Spike in Spam Emails Containing Malicious Office Macros

Combo Threat Research Labs also detected a surge in spam emails on May 17, with the campaign lasting 12 hours. During this spam email blitz, more than 30 million messages were sent. While the aim of the attackers was to download Locky ransomware onto users’ devices, the gang behind this campaign used fake Amazon shipping notices rather than JavaScript spam emails.

The documents containing the shipping notices contained a malicious macro. In order to open the attached file, users were required to enable macros on their devices. Doing so would trigger a ransomware download. Email recipients who have their office settings configured to automatically allow macros to run are at particularly at risk, as simply opening the email attachment would result in Locky being downloaded onto their devices.

Proofpoint also recorded this spike in malicious spam emails, although the company put the total number of emails in the campaign at over 100 million, making this one of the largest spam email campaigns seen in recent years, and certainly one of the biggest campaigns of 2016.

The Amazon spam email campaign is being distributed using spam botnets on virtual machines and consumer devices. This campaign was notable because the attackers were able to manipulate the email headers. This made the messages appear legitimate to email recipients. Any email recipients who regularly use Amazon.com for purchases could easily be fooled into opening the file attachment.

The emails used the subject line: “Your Amazon.com order has dispatched” along with a code number, closely mimicking the emails sent up Amazon. The body of the email did not contain any text. If users want to find out which order the email refers to, they would need to open the file attachment. The emails also appear to have been sent from the Amazon.com domain, making it much harder for email recipients to determine that the messages are malicious spam.

Surge in Spam Email Highlights the Importance of Using Spam Filtering Solutions

Spam email may have been in decline in recent years, but the latest waves of attacks clearly demonstrate that criminal gangs have far from given up on the medium for delivering ransomware. Spam emails containing links to malicious websites have remained at a fairly constant level over the past few months, yet JavaScript spam emails and malicious macros have surged. These spam email spikes show just how important it is to use a robust spam filtering solution such as SpamTitan.

SpamTitan captures 99.97% of spam email and prevents malicious spam emails from being delivered to inboxes. Since malicious actors are getting much better at masking their messages and making them appear legitimate, it is essential to limit the volume that are delivered to end users rather than rely on individuals to be able to identify emails as spam.

Worrying Phishing Activity Trends Highlighted by Anti-Phishing Report

A recent report issued by the Anti-Phishing Working Group highlights worrying phishing activity trends. According to the Phishing Activity Trends Report, the number of new phishing websites is growing at an alarming rate.

A recent report published by PhishMe showed that email phishing activity has now reached unprecedented levels. Phishing email volume increased by 789% quarter over quarter. The APWG report shows that cybercriminals are also increasingly conducting web-borne attacks. Phishing websites increased by 250% from the last quarter of 2015 through the first quarter of 2016.

APWG expected to see an increase in the number of phishing websites created in the run up to the holiday season. Every year, criminals take advantage of the increased number of online purchases being made around Christmas. Many new phishing websites are created in November and December and online fraud always increases in December.

However, typically, there is a drop in spamming an online fraud in January. This year that fall did not occur. In fact, the number of new phishing websites continued to rise in January. There was a slight fall in February, before a major increase in March. According to the Phishing Activity Trends Report, in December 2015, 65,885 unique phishing websites were detected. In January 2016, the total had risen to 86,557. By March the total had reached a staggering 123,555 unique phishing websites.

Cybercriminals are most commonly targeting the retail sector and are spoofing websites in an attempt to defraud consumers. 42.71% of phishing websites target the retail sector, with the financial sector in second place with 18.67% of sites. Payment services accounted for 14.74% of sites, ISPs 12.01%, and multimedia sites 3.3%.

The phishing activity trends report indicates an increase in the targeting of cloud-based or SAAS companies, which it is claimed is driving the attacks on the retail sector.

More than 55% of phishing websites contain the name of the target brand somewhere in the URL. Attackers are concentrating the attacks on the most popular brands. By March 2016, APWG reported that 418 different brands were being targeted using phishing websites.

Phishing email campaigns are known to be sent extensively from outside the United States, although when it comes to phishing websites they are usually hosted in the United States. 75.62% of phishing websites are hosted in the US.

The United States also hosts the most phishing-based Trojans and downloaders – 62.36%. China is also being extensively targeted. China hosted 5% of phishing-based Trojans and downloaders in January. By March, the figure had risen to 13.71%.

More than 20 million new malware samples were detected at the start of 2016 – That’s an average of 227,000 new malware samples every day. The majority of new malware are Trojans, which account for 66.81% of new samples. Viruses were second (15.98%) and worms third (11.01%).

The massive rise in phishing websites highlights how important it is for caution to be exercised when purchasing online. Businesses should also take additional precautions. Web filters can be used to block phishing websites from being visited by employees. A web filtering solution – WebTitan for example – can also be used to prevent drive-by downloads of malware and ransomware.

Phishing Email Statistics Show Q1 Rise of 789%

The latest phishing email statistics released by the anti-phishing training company PhishMe show the extent to which the use of phishing has increased in recent months.

PhishMe compiles quarterly phishing email statistics and tracks the volume of phishing emails being sent. During the first three months of 2016, the volume of phishing emails increased by a staggering 789%. More than 6.3 million more phishing emails were sent in Q1, 2016 than in Q4, 2015.

According to the quarterly report, the biggest problem currently faced by personal and corporate computer users is ransomware. Ransomware emails now account for more than 93% of all phishing emails. Ransomware offers a quick payout for cybercriminals and the campaigns can be quickly developed and run. In fact, ransomware emails are being sent by criminals with little or no programming skill. They can simply purchase ransomware kits on darknet marketplaces and obtain a cut of the ransom payments that are made.

Targeted ransomware attacks are now being conducted on businesses of all sizes. Criminals are well aware that many organizations do not regularly perform backups of critical data. Even when backups are performed, many organizations do not unplug their backup devices. The latest ransomware variants are capable of deleting Windows shadow copies and encrypting backup files on connected storage devices. This gives organizations no alternative but to pay the ransom demand to recover files. The biggest threat is now Locky. Locky is delivered via spam email using JSDropper or malicious Word macros.

PhishMe’s phishing email statistics also show two other main trends. Cybercriminals are tending to concentrate on soft-targeted campaigns. Spear phishing emails target just one or two individuals, but the latest trend sees malicious emails messages sent to a group of individuals in an organization – the billing department for instance. The emails are targeting specific roles in an organization rather than specific individuals.

The phishing email statistics also show a rise in the use of JSDropper applications. JSDropper applications are now present in around a third of all phishing emails. Malicious Word macros are still extensively used to infect computers with malware and ransomware, but JavaScript applications are now the most common type of malicious files sent in phishing emails according to the report.

The increase in malicious spam email shows how important it is for organizations to employ a robust spam filtering solution – SpamTitan for example – and to also ensure that employees are informed of the high risk of phishing attacks occurring. Employees should also be instructed how to identify phishing emails and told how they should respond if they believe they have been sent a malicious email message.

Surge in Ransomware Emails In March 2016

A new report by anti-phishing training company PhishMe shows a marked rise in the volume of ransomware emails in March. The report shows that spam emails are now predominantly being used to deliver ransomware to unsuspecting victims. The spike in ransomware emails highlights how important it is to conduct anti-phishing training and to use anti-spam solutions to prevent the malicious file-encrypting software from being delivered to employee’s inboxes.

Spike in Ransomware Emails as Criminals Seek Easy Cash

Ransomware has been around for about a decade, yet it has not been favored by cybercriminals until recently. Throughout 2015, under 10% of phishing emails were being used to transmit ransomware. However, in December there was a major spike in ransomware emails, which accounted for 56% of all phishing emails in December. The upward trend has continued in 2016 and by March, 93% of phishing emails contained ransomware – or were used to infect users by directing them to malicious websites where drive-by downloads of the malicious software occurred.

Spam email volume has been in general decline, in no small part to the shutting down of major botnets in recent years. However, that does not mean that the threat of cyberattacks via email can be ignored. In fact, PhishMe’s figures show there has been a surge in the number of phishing emails being sent. In the first quarter of 2016, the number of detected phishing emails soared to 6.3 million, which represents a 789% increase from the volume captured in the last quarter of 2015.

Ransomware is increasingly being used by cybercriminals for a number of reasons. Ransomware is now easy to obtain and send out. Many ransomware authors offer ransomware-as-a-service to any criminal looking to make a quick buck. Not only can the ransomware be hired for next to nothing, instructions are supplied on how to use it and criminals are allowed to set their own ransoms and timescales for payment. All they need to do is pay a percentage of the ransoms they obtain to the authors.

What makes the use of ransomware even more attractive is the speed at which criminals can get paid. Time limits for paying ransoms are usually very short. Demands for payment within 48 hours are not uncommon. While phishing emails have commonly been used to obtain credit card details from victims, which then need to be sold on, criminals can run a ransomware campaign and rake in Bitcoin payments in just a few days.

The ransoms being demanded are also relatively low. This means that many individuals can afford to pay the ransom to obtain the decryption keys to unlock their files, and businesses are also likely to pay. The cost of recovering data and restoring systems, together with the lost revenue from the time that computer systems are down, is often less than the ransom being demanded.

Ransomware Is Becoming Much More Sophisticated

The latest forms of ransomware now being used – Locky, CryptXXX, TeslaCrypt, and Samas (Samsam) – are capable of spreading laterally. Not only can the ransomware infect files on a single computer, other networked computers can also be infected, as can network drives, servers, portable storage devices, and backup drives. Some forms are also capable of deleting Windows shadow copies and preventing the restoration of files from backups.

All that the criminals need is for one business computer to be infected in order to encrypt files throughout the network. That means only one end user needs to be fooled into opening an infected attachment or visiting a malicious webpage.

Ransomware emails often contain personal information to increase the likelihood of an individual clicking a malicious link or opening an infected attachment. Word files are now commonly being used to infect users. Embedded macros contain code that downloads the malicious payload.

The malicious software is sent out in spear phishing campaigns targeting one or two users in a company, such as accounts and billing department executives. Personal information is often used in the emails – names, addresses, and job titles for example – to increase the likelihood of attachments being opened and links being clicked.

As criminals get better at crafting phishing emails and the ransomware becomes more sophisticated, it is more important than ever to use anti-spam solutions such as SpamTitan to trap ransomware emails and prevent them from being delivered. SpamTitan traps 99.9% of spam emails, helping organizations protect their networks from ransomware attacks.