Now You Can Tell Facebook When Your Friends Are Posting Fake News
All the news that's fit to debunk.
It happens all the time: you're browsing your Facebook feed when all of a sudden your mom's weird uncle posts a link saying that next week Obama's going to cancel all the gravity and we'll have to sign up for government-sponsored people-leashes to keep us at our desks. You could tell him that's the stupidest thing you've ever heard, but it'll make family reunions awkward. Now, Facebook will do it for you. Score one for not having to talk to other humans
Read MoreGoogle Now Allows Anyone on Google+ to Email Your Gmail without Your Address, Here’s How to Disallow That
Is this some kind of deliberate test of their spam filters?
The latest in a series of changes, Google has allowed anyone on Google+ to send emails to Gmail accounts. It's OK, though. There's a solution that does not involve hiding from your email for the rest of your life to avoid spam. Like the recent change to image display settings, the Google+ email feature is easily turned off.
Read MoreGoogle Banished Lyrics Site Rap Genius from Search Results for Shady SEO Tricks
Google is become The Destroyer of Internets.
Rap Genius, a site that allows users to annotate song lyrics to provide insight into their meaning, irritated Google with some shady tricks to get higher placement in search results. So Google banished them to the wasteland that is anything that doesn't show up in the first few search results pages, because they pretty much own the Internet.
Read MoreIs Spam The Native Art Form Of The Internet? [Video]
Everything happens so much!
Like us, Mike Rugnetta was pretty bummed to find out that Horse_eBooks hasn't been a real spambot for the past two years. However, it got him and the rest of the crew at PBS Idea Channel thinking about the true nature of spam and whether it might, when done well, even be considered artistic. Huh. Well, that's an odd twist.
Read MoreThere’s a Huge Cyber Attack Slowing Down the Internet Because of Spam
Noticing a bit of a lag online today? If you are, you might be able to thank an ongoing battle between anti-spam organization Spamhaus and alleged spammer safe-haven Cyberbunker. Spamhaus is currently under fire from a massive DDoS attack believed to be coming from Cyberbunker. How massive is the attack? 300 gigabits per second massive. That's huge, and it's slowing down other parts of the Internet, important parts -- like Netflix.
Oops! Google Kind of Blocked All of Digg by Accident
It's not a great day for Digg. That's because Google accidentally blocked the entire site -- all of it -- from its search results today. The block was a mistake, says Google, and was the result of simple error. Thankfully, Digg is already back in the search results. So what happened exactly?
Just 20 ISPs Are Responsible for Nearly Half of All Email Spam Worldwide
Considering the wide variety of products spam email acts as a barker for, you might assume that there are an equally diverse range of individuals, or at least programs, trying to sell you important goods like mirrors, plastic sheers, and of course medications for male stamina. (Also, wow, am I ever troubled by what my spam folder seems to think of me.) According to a recent look at the numbers, though, that's not the case. In fact, the study from the University of Twente suggests that just 20 of the more than 42,000 Internet service providers worldwide are responsible for nearly half of the emails that you get looking to sell you penis enlargement pills and various other high quality goods and services.
Spam Levels Holding Steady Despite Botnet Takedown
Dropbox Now Confirms They Were Hacked, Updates Security
Only a little over a week ago, Dropbox and their outside experts were claiming that there was no evidence of a hack. As it happens, they were wrong. They've now confirmed that some users did see unauthorized activity on a small number of accounts due to the recent slew of passwords being leaked across the Internet. On top of that, one of their employees had their account -- which included a document with user email addresses -- accessed as well. Oops.
Dropbox Says No Evidence of Hack Despite Spam Concerns
Nothing's ever as secure as we think it is. Dropbox, having not so long ago accidentally dropped password protection on user accounts, has been receiving reports of folks receiving spam in their emails. Normally this wouldn't be an issue -- most email accounts get spam. The complicate things, the users have claimed that these accounts were unique to Dropbox; the only way for someone to be spamming them would be due to having somehow gotten the accounts from Dropbox.
Inboxes Rejoice: Botnet Behind 18% of Spam Taken Down
The Grum botnet has been one of the most prominent distributors of spam for years, ranking third in terms of world spam volume. Yesterday, network security corporation FireEye reported that all of Grum's command and control servers (or CnC's) had been taken down after a weeks-long effort. Thanks to the work of a number of individuals who contributed to the takedown, we may see a significant decrease in the volume of the world's spam in the coming months.
Read MoreTwitter Says It Spent Over $700,000 Fighting Spam From Just Five Sources
In Twitter's recently announced spammer lawsuit, the micro-blogging service said (in a lot more than 140 characters) that they hoped to cut off spam at the source by going after its creators. In its suit, Twitter claims to have spent an awful lot of money trying to hold the deluge back; about $700,000 to fight spam from only the five sources mentioned in the suit.
Twitter to Turn Law-Cannon on Fleet of Spam Cruisers
Anyone on Twitter who made the mistake of saying something like "iPad" in a tweet knows that there are spammers out there, and they are legion. For the most part they just fire sketchy links at you, offering a bevy of free goods, and clogging up your mentions page. But no longer, if Twitter has anything to say about it. Although its arsenal of anti-spammer security precautions manage to blast some of the spambots out of the twittersphere, there are some that still get through, so Twitter is breaking out a new super weapon: The shining, golden fist of Law.
Pinterest Spammer Makes $1,000 a Day Spamming Pinterest
Not too long ago, the Daily Dot wrote an article describing how to spot a spammer on Pinterest. They focused on a user named final-fantas07, and not too long after the article went up, the very same user contacted the Daily Dot and divulged interesting details regarding his operation, including that he makes around $1,000 a day spamming Pinterest, and expects that number to jump to $2,000 to $2,500 soon.
India Is The Top Source For Spam Email
According to a recent report from Internet security firm Kaspersky, India is currently the number one country in the world when it comes to generating spam email. According to Kasperksy, in the third quarter of last year, spam accounted for about 79.8% of email traffic, and the top three countries responsible for generating it were India at 14.8%, Indonesia at 10.6%, and Brazil at 9.7%. This is a little bit up from a reported low point this summer, and India might be to blame.
Spam At Its Lowest Level Since 2008
According to computer security juggernaut Symantec (makers of Norton Antivirus) global spam levels are the lowest they've been since 2008, when a particularly notorious spam center was taken offline. Worldwide, spam is now down to only 1 in 1.37 emails and only 73.7 percent of emails as a whole. Yes, that's right. This is considered a low-point.
While there is clearly still a remarkable spam presence on the Internet, some of the current lull could be attributed to progress in taking down the largely automated networks responsible for spending it. Not to mention, spam filters are getting better and by this point, most Internet users understand what spam is and how to effectively avoid it. There's also no telling what percentage of these recorded spam emails are being sent to largely inactive, or disposable accounts. Read MoreWhat Happens When You Buy Things from Spam E-Mails?
Since it's their job to protect customers from the darkest spawn of the Web, the brave, possibly foolhardy researchers at F-Secure decided to simply buy a bunch of products advertised in spam e-mails and see what happened. Though we don't recommend that you try this at home, the results were not what you might expect:
While doing some spam research a couple of years ago, we did a series of test purchases from spam e-mails. We bought pills, software, cigarettes, et cetera. We were a bit surprised that almost all of the orders went through and actually delivered goods. Sure, the Windows CD we got was a poor clone and the Rolex was obviously fake, but at least they sent us something. We were carefully watching the credit card accounts we created for our tests but we never saw any fraudulent use of them. The most surprising outcome from this test was that we didn't see more spam to the e-mail addresses we used to order the goods.They offer this sad addendum, however: "P.S. We never actually got the Rolex we ordered. It was stopped and confiscated by local customs as a pirated product. They ended up destroying it. With a hammer." See also: This new study on the worldwide spam business. [pdf] (F-Secure via Marginal Revolution) Read More
Spammer’s Delight: Researchers Defeat Audio CAPTCHAs
Daniel Balsam, the Man Who Quit His Job to Make a Living Suing Spammers
Since 2002, a man named Daniel Balsam has made a career out of suing companies that send spam messages via email. Formerly a marketer, Balsam quit his job, went to law school, and has since made "well in excess of $1 million in court judgments and lawsuit settlements with companies accused of sending illegal spam."
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