\nIf you\u2019ve been plagued by spam and you\u2019ve had enough, you\u2019re not alone. Spammers are branching out into campaign-type attacks<\/a> that utilize multiple platforms to lure in new targets. They\u2019ve been doing it for some time now, but it appears that, just as we hone our skills while we ferret spam out and deposit it in the trash folder, spammers are getting more adept at their craft, and that can\u2019t be a good thing.<\/p>\n

Of great concern is the continued high level of spam traffic. It still hovers around 70%<\/a> and we cheer when we discover that it\u2019s dropped to 68%, as if a statistically small decline is at least a moral victory. As much as we want to buy-in when we read an article about the war on spam and how it\u2019s being won, it really isn\u2019t. Any decline in overall traffic is almost imperceptible on a practical level, and while we often choose to ignore the obvious, the landscape has become far more dangerous<\/a>, a minefield laden with malware<\/a> and phishing techniques<\/a> that make IT admins very nervous.<\/p>\n

Have we gotten better at spotting spam? Sure. Have we become more adept at recognizing the risks and dangers? Yes. Have we managed to identify the attacks and intercept them before they occur, and have we become masters of dealing with the attacks after they hit? Well, now the landscape becomes murkier.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, a couple of stories from 2013.<\/p>\n

In June, the German education ministry made news when it was reported that the ministry discovered 170 PCs and servers infected with Conficker<\/a>. Now, we all know that Conficker was probably co-developed by Satan and Justin Bieber. It\u2019s just that evil. But evil or not, there are plenty of ways to deal with a situation like that, and what did the German education ministry do? Well, the obvious choice. It replaced the computers with new ones. According to The Register<\/a>, the decision cost German taxpayers \u20ac187,300 (\u00a3158,291). Now, is this a case of overreaction? You decide. But it seems awfully troubling at best, and at worst disturbing, that the only way we can handle infections is to destroy the host.<\/p>\n

In February, a telecom company called Telecom (yes, really) made tech news when its users were hit with a massive spam attack. The New Zealand based firm licensed the Yahoo! XTra service for its email users and over a very short period of time 87,000 users were bombarded with spam emails. It was particularly malicious, too. According to 3News<\/a>, \u201cjust getting the email gives hackers access to the recipient\u2019s contacts, which means spam can then be sent to them as well, regardless of which email provider they\u2019re with.\u201d And \u201csecurity expert Martin Crocker pointed out that \u201cIf people have received an email and clicked on a link, their computer could be infected with malware, depending on the security of their machine when they clicked on that link.\u201d\u201d So what did Telecom do? It cancelled 60,000 user passwords. And it did so without really\u2026uhm, I don\u2019t know\u2026telling anyone.<\/p>\n

And if that wasn\u2019t enough, the beleaguered company was hit again in November, and this time the company went a little further, locking out the affected accounts and \u2018recommending\u2019 that users change their passwords. It wasn\u2019t really a recommendation, since it was mandatory. Now, you can feel for Telecom all you want, and we do, too. But this story is newsworthy because of \u00a0TUANZ<\/a>, the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand. Not really a users\u2019 group, at least not in the way we understand, the industry association backed its member Telecom, with TUANZ chief Paul Brislen blaming the users (the PC users) for not reacting after the February incident. And as if he didn\u2019t know when to keep his mouth shut, according to Radio New Zealand he went as far as saying \u201cspam cannot be stopped and it\u2019s vital customers change their passwords frequently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Spam cannot be stopped.\u2019 Finally! Someone has thrown in the towel. We can all go home now and stop worrying about it.<\/p>\n

Whether or not Mr. Brislen\u2019s insight is true, that defeatist attitude is just the type of thinking that takes the air out of the efforts of those who wage war on spam on a daily basis. We\u2019ve got work to do. Like it or not, Blackhole is here to stay<\/a>, and botnets rage on. Phishers continue to hone their skills<\/a>, and spam gets more dangerous<\/a>. Have we seen the worst yet? Probably not. Why? Because there\u2019s money to be made<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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