Malicious spam on the rise says Brightmail
Anti-spam filtering company Brightmail is warning
users about an increase in malicious spam following the
introduction of anti-spam legislation in a number of
jurisdictions.
Brightmail, which has filters on around 25% of
the world’s email addresses, is used by both TelstraClear and
Telecom’s Xtra and so covers around 85% of New Zealand’s email.
Brightmail vice president for Asia Pacific, Garry
Sexton, says that with the introduction of anti-spam legislation
spammers have developed a “damn the torpedoes” approach.
“They seem to be saying ‘if it’s not legal at all
then let’s go hell for leather’ and so the kinds of email we’re
seeing are moving from the business spam to the fraudulent and
malicious.”
Sexton says currently most spam caught by
Brightmail filters is of a business orientation but that’s
changing.
“It’s spam about products like mortgages or
whatever and people are seeing it as just another form of
advertising. I hear about cheap mortgages on the radio, I get an
email about them. It’s seen as the same thing.”
Sexton says it’s the other, fraudulent kind of
spam that is truly dangerous.
“They’re after your PIN or your credit card
numbers. They’re cunning so they don’t nail your account
straight away, they direct you to a website and let you do
whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing and then a month
later they take the money from your account.”
In addition to credit cards, Sexton says
Brightmail is seeing a lot of identity theft in South East
Asia.
“They’re after social security numbers or, like
we’ve seen here in New Zealand, government information from
users.”
Sexton says since Brightmail is now covering so
many individual users’ addresses the next big target for
spammers is the corporation. Most ISPs that do filter for spam
don’t provide the service for business customers, says Sexton,
and so Brightmail is talking with corporations about filtering
at their gateways.
“We see a huge potential for spam filtering at
that level as well as at the ISP.”
Sexton is in New Zealand to talk with customers,
prospective clients and the government about its proposed
anti-spam legislation.
