CipherTrust Confirms 21-Percent Jump in New Zombie Machines and 20-Percent Overall Increase in Spam; TrustedSource Reputation Engine Finds that 64 Percent of Spam Servers Exploiting Zombies are Located in Taiwan.ATLANTA -- CipherTrust, Inc., the leader in messaging security, today announced research findings that confirmed a 21-percent increase in the number of new zombie A computer that has been covertly taken over in order to perform some nefarious task. It is estimated that millions of PCs around the world have been compromised and, under the control of a third party, routinely transmit messages unbeknownst to the user. computers--bringing the total number of daily new zombies Zombies Companies that continue to operate even though they are insolvent. Also known as living dead. Notes: It's advisable to avoid investing in zombies at all costs their life expectancies are highly unpredictable. to almost 300,000--and a 20-percent increase in overall unwanted e-mail traffic over the past month. Additionally, CipherTrust(R) Research concluded that of all spam servers--servers used to relay spam and phishing Pronounced "fishing," it is a scam to steal valuable information such as credit card and social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. Also known as "brand spoofing," an official-looking e-mail is sent to potential victims pretending to be from their ISP, bank or retail establishment. e-mails through zombie PCs--64 percent are located in Taiwan; 23 percent are located in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. ; and three percent are located in China. Zombies Continue to Cause Sharp Rise in Spam According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. an analysis of information collected using a combination of CipherTrust's TrustedSource(TM) reputation engine and Spam Profiler(TM) technology, spam volumes continue to increase, coinciding with the significant spike in the number of new zombies. This increase also may coincide with the sharp rise in the use of randomized ran·dom·ize tr.v. ran·dom·ized, ran·dom·iz·ing, ran·dom·iz·es To make random in arrangement, especially in order to control the variables in an experiment. image-based stock spam in which spammers use graphics-based messages to avert traditional anti-spam deployments. "Botnets continue to drive the majority of unwanted mail proliferating Proliferating is the multiplication of a certain thing. Often it is used as a biological term to describe the increase of cells due to cell division. Look under proliferate or proliferation for more details. on the Internet," said Dr. Paul Judge Sir Paul Judge is a leader in financial services and in education. He is Chairman of Schroder Income Growth Fund plc, a director of Standard Bank Group Ltd of Johannesburg and a member of the Advisory Boards for Barclays Private Bank and for Abraaj Capital of Dubai. , chief technology officer at CipherTrust. "Since the Sober outbreak in November pushed volumes to record highs with more than a 15-percent increase in spam and a 50-percent increase in the number of new zombies, the volume had remained fairly consistent. Over the last month, we've continued to see a steady rise, pushing volumes to yet another record high and underscoring the evolving nature of these threats and the critical need for organizations to implement comprehensive security strategies." Spam Server Origination Dominated by Taiwan, United States & China CipherTrust Research is able to determine the origins of spam servers using a combination of the Company's TrustedSource reputation engine and a network of "fake" zombies deployed throughout the world. CipherTrust deploys a network of zombie-like machines across the world to gather intelligence on spamming operations. While these fake zombies do not relay spam or phishing attacks to end users, they collect messages from spammers trying to exploit those machines and feed the information into the TrustedSource reputation engine for further analysis, including determining the physical location of the servers. After careful analysis, CipherTrust Research concluded that Taiwan, the United States and China lead the way in spam server origination. All of these regions provide inexpensive broadband access See broadband and wireless broadband. by providers that the research would suggest are sometimes slow to shutdown malicious accounts. "CipherTrust has continued to innovate our technology, moving from monitoring zombie activity and analyzing how spammers and phishers benefit from those compromised machines, to now further examining their origins," continued Judge. "This is important information for ISPs and law enforcement authorities for determining where to focus efforts to make a real difference in the fight against attackers." CipherTrust Research - Sharing Technology and Innovation The CipherTrust Research Portal is home to numerous industry resources, including PhishRegistry.org, TrustedSource.org and SpamArchive.org--three of CipherTrust's free tools to stop spam, fraud and phishing. The Research Portal also provides access to research updates, events and statistics. CipherTrust Research is focused on improving the world's messaging security posture by contributing to the advancement of messaging security technologies, promoting awareness and education, and working with government and law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). around the world. To access the CipherTrust Research Portal please visit http://research.ciphertrust.com/. About CipherTrust, Inc. CipherTrust, Inc., the leader in messaging security, provides innovative layered security Layered security is a new term used by information protection and online security vendors that describes the practice of leveraging several different point security solutions to protect the digital identities and information of consumer, enterprise or government environments. solutions to stop inbound in·bound 1 adj. Bound inward; incoming: inbound commuter traffic. Adj. 1. inbound messaging threats such as spam, viruses, intrusions and phishing, and protect against outbound policy and compliance violations. CipherTrust's integrated best-of-breed capabilities deliver maximum availability and unmatched security, effectiveness and enterprise manageability across multiple communication channels including e-mail, instant messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or and Web-based mail. Recognized by IDC as the market leader for secure content management appliances, CipherTrust protects the messaging infrastructure of more enterprises than any other vendor, including more than one-third of the Fortune 500. CipherTrust is backed by top-tier investors including Battery Ventures and Greylock Partners. For more information about CipherTrust, please visit www.ciphertrust.com or call 877-448-8625. The following are either trademarks or registered trademarks of CipherTrust, Inc. in the United States or other countries or both: CipherTrust, TrustedSource, Spam Profiler, PhishRegistry.org, TrustedSource.org, SpamArchive.org. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. |
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