Cloudmark Addresses Increased Use of Images in Spam "Pump & Dump" Stock Scams
Image Decoding Capability Protects Users as it Speeds Detection of Rapidly Morphing and Elusive Image-based Threats
SAN FRANCISCO, May 30, 2006—Cloudmark, Inc., the proven leader in messaging security solutions, announced today that its suite of anti-spam/anti-phishing solutions employ image decoding capabilities that rapidly deter attacks using images. Image-based spam makes detection by traditional text-based content filters more difficult. In recent months, Cloudmark researchers have noted a dramatic spike in the number of spam messages using images rather than text, most notably in "stock spam," messages promoting specific stocks to artificially elevate prices. By decoding images, Cloudmark is able to protect its desktop, enterprise and service provider customers.
Stock spam is a modernized take on the traditional "pump and dump" schemes where buzz is created, in this case via wide distribution of email, about stocks. Because of the high profit potential for spammers, they are investing significant resources to development of these messages, using images to individualize the messages and thus avoid conventional spam detection by changing as little as a single pixel in the email background or border. These threats morph rapidly and drain bandwidth. For service providers, the threat translates to wasted storage and server resources, and enabling protection from these threats generates higher customer trust and loyalty among people looking for legitimate investment opportunities.
The Cloudmark Collaborative Security Network maintains fingerprints of current "bad" messages. Trusted reviewers within Cloudmark's global community report fraudulent mail to the instant feedback system, which confirms fingerprints flagged by sophisticated algorithms, and distributes the fingerprints to the worldwide network. Stock and other image-based spam is blocked within moments, despite spammers' significant investment in rapidly changing their images to avoid detection.
Vipul Ved Prakash, founder and chief scientist for Cloudmark, says, "All types of messaging threats are becoming more sophisticated as the senders attempt to avoid detection. While there is always hope that deterrents will make a threat simply go away, the reality is that this never happens. Instead, as the technology becomes more sophisticated, so, too, do the bad guys who use it to their benefit. The only way to cope with polymorphic threats is to make certain the technology can stay on top of it. That's why Cloudmark's method has been so successful since it was introduced, and actually improves over time as more and more users join the global community."
About Cloudmark
Cloudmark protects 2 billion global subscribers daily from an explosion in messaging abuses across more operator networks than anyone else. Only Cloudmark defends the world’s largest Mobile, Fixed and Social Media Providers, including AT&T, Comcast, MySpace, NTT, Swisscom and Time Warner Cable, with scalable and accurate protection against the widest range of existing and emerging messaging threats.