From the Cloudmark Blog

• Getting Rid of SpamSoldier

  December 21 2012, by Andrew Conway

  A couple of days ago all the domains used by the Android Spambot went offline and have stayed down. This includes the Command and Control servers, so the army of zombie droids are now headless. However, if you did get tricked into installing this malware it will still be blocking some of your incoming texts, [...] Read more.

• Android SMS Spambot Update

  December 18 2012, by Andrew Conway

  Yesterday we told you about an Android trojan used to send SMS spam. Currently, the the versions of this malware being distributed by the spammer are: angrybirds.apk MD5 = a0e7a47c6b3582f9c9a4c5166eb0eace gtavicecity.apk MD5 = a8de900d9ff269455f4344b8e8409699 needforspeed.apk MD5  = c18bc53d74e8a6926453a8c86355501a The Command and Control server has moved to pinktrash.mobi, though imperialistic.mobi is still functional for the handsets [...] Read more.

• Android Trojan Used To Create Simple SMS Spam Botnet

  December 16 2012, by Andrew Conway

  A new crop of trojan mobile applications are demonstrating simple mobile botnet behavior, leveraging infected handsets to spread spam and invitations for other users to download the infected apps. This new evolution of malicious mobile applications is presently being monitored by the Cloudmark mobile security research team who had been investigating a strong uptick in [...] Read more.

• Spammer in Spamcop’s Clothing

  December 3 2012, by Andrew Conway

  As you can imagine, spammers are not particularly fond of spam filtering services, but one of them decided to make it personal. Look what turned up in our spam filters the other day: From: “info@spamcop.com” <info@spamcop.com> Subject: Alert! Your email will be blacklisted soon. Dear  %email%, We received complaints about spam coming from your network.  [...] Read more.

• Black Friday Starts Early For Spammers

  November 19 2012, by Andrew Conway

  At the end of last week, seven whole days before the traditional retail Armageddon that we call Black Friday, we blocked the first high volume Black Friday email spam. As you can see, it was offering unbelievably cheap prices on a variety of goods. The only problem is, these are closing prices from an auction [...] Read more.

• Ringing the Bell for Cyber Security Awareness

  October 16 2012, by Mary Landesman

  October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. In recognition of that, the National Cyber Security Alliance teamed up with the Department of Homeland Security and the security industry to sponsor the opening bell ceremony at NASDAQ. Held at 4 Times Square on Monday, October 15, the principal bell ringer was Jane Holl Lute, Deputy Secretary [...] Read more.

• Instagram is the Spammers’ Latest Target

  October 1 2012, by Andrew Conway

  Facebook’s billion dollar acquisition of Instagram attracted a lot of attention, and a few raised eyebrows, but it seems to be paying off. A recent study shows that mobile users spend more time with Instagram than they do with Twitter. Of course, as soon as a social network becomes popular, the spammers move in, so [...] Read more.

• Justice for the ‘Secret Crush’ spammer?

  September 25 2012, by Chris Barton

   “You Have 1 unread message from your secret crush…” “Someone thinks you’re hot!” “Someone sent you a weird diet tip that works.” New York state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman‘s office were responsible for the settlement in the case against Game Theory LLC that resulted in fines of $500,000 and a prohibition on the deceptive [...] Read more.

• iPhone 5: If Rumors Spiked Massive Scam Increase, What Will Launch Do?

  September 14 2012, by Mary Landesman

  Undoubtedly, pre-orders for the iPhone 5 are flooding in for Apple today. Will SMS scammers follow suit with a surge in iPhone 5 scams? After all, last February’s iPhone 5 release rumors spawned a pretty massive spike in iPhone 5 scams so it stands to reason the actual release of the device will have an [...] Read more.

• Severe Surge in SMS Phishing Attacks

  September 7 2012, by Mary Landesman

  During the first week of September, Cloudmark observed a 913% increase in the volume of SMS phishing attempts, making SMS phishing currently the single largest SMS text messaging threat. The surge appears to be the result of a single set of attacks which initially started on September 4th. Thus far, attackers have used over 500 [...] Read more.