Clearswift Reveals Unprecedented Spam Analysis Exposes Depth of Social Engineering; The Most Thorough Spam Study Ever Supports Gartner's Predictions.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Spammers are becoming increasingly canny in tune with the sensibilities of e-mail users, and exploiting these to the full in order to shift their wares. The findings of Clearswift's November Spam Index, the most in-depth spam analysis to date by an e-mail security provider, reveals spammers are deploying different techniques in each sector to spread viruses, gain control of computers and encourage recipients to part with their cash.

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Analyst house Gartner this week predicted that social engineering -- the manipulation of people rather than machines to breach security -- will be the biggest security threat over the next 10 years. And the meticulous investigation of over 19,000 spam e-mails conducted by Clearswift exposes the tactics used in e-mails advertising everything from fake Rolex watches to manuals on gambling secrets. (Source: silicon.com)

Phishing scams remain the most blatant use of social engineering. "Scams" and "eBay" have frequently appeared in the same sentence in recent weeks, and eBay cons are certainly present in the Spam Index analysis. Yet the study confirms that Citibank is still by far the biggest victim -- almost 50% of mails in the "scam" category are masquerading as communication from the U.S. banking giant. As Internet banking becomes more popular, phishing scams are becoming increasingly realistic in an attempt to exploit the lack of experience of many novice online bank users.

Subject lines of "Account number ###" or "Your mortgage number ###" are also frequent, but rather less convincing tricks. Though these are far less likely to elicit money initially, confused e-mail users might reply, thus confirming their e-mail address and opening the door for a deluge of spam and viruses. The Spam Index shows spammers have even turned to faith to instill credibility in their mails, offering finance from Christian organizations, and using religious imagery.

An interesting new entrant onto the virtual market stall this month has been the Rolex watch, now accounting for over 5% of spam. No bones are made of the fact that these are fake goods. As revealed in a recent survey by the BSA, we are living in a pirate generation and see no problem with the purchase of fake goods -- aspirational brands such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci being the most counterfeited.

Yet it would appear that software piracy is not quite as acceptable. Spammers brazenly head up their mails with disclaimers such as "Never use illegal office software" or "It's illegal to use hacked Microsoft Office" to promote manifestly counterfeit products.

One group of particularly professional-looking mails draws on our inability to turn down a freebie. These appear to offer expensive gifts such as a TV or laptop in return for sitting on a product review panel, quoting a plausible sounding name such as "The Consumer Research Corp." Looking at the small print, these always come from an "affiliate" of the company, making it harder to track down the sender's origin and reducing any legal link.

The benefits of buying potentially embarrassing healthcare goods (which make up 47% of all spam) online such as Viagra are obvious. However, spammers further reassure buyers by highlighting the fact that they're from "Canadian pharmacies," where prescriptions are generally free, and the cost of drugs is much cheaper.

"It makes sense for spammers to target our weak spots," said Alyn Hockey, Clearswift's technical director. "Though their success rate remains minimal, their constantly evolving tricks means organizations have to increasingly rely on robust e-mail security software to filter out their rubbish."

With Christmas around the corner, social engineering will come into its own. Clearswift predicts a rise in mails which specifically suggest the purchase of products as gifts for loved ones. On a more sinister note, the last two years have seen cyber criminals use e-cards as a means of infiltrating Trojans onto the desktop. Employees are traditionally in a more relaxed mood as the festive season approaches, and organizations are advised to warn employees not to let their guard down. In addition, with the proposed changes in U.K. gambling legislation, it will be interesting to see whether spammers ramp up their casino-conning offers over the coming months.

About the Spam Index

The spam categorization statistics were extracted from the millions of spam e-mails harvested by Clearswift's seed accounts on a weekly basis. They are collated and analysed using Clearswift's spamActive service, which is an integral component of the multi-layered anti-spam protection offered by MIMEsweeper for SMTP 5.0. Updated eight times daily, spamActive routinely extracts spam terms, sender domains, URLs and subject lines, which can be automatically downloaded to update customers' e-mail policies.

About Clearswift

Clearswift secures content and protects against digital attacks by enforcing security policies that increase productivity, reduce IT costs and create a safer business environment. Its world-leading business is founded on providing Total Content Security for e-mail and Web.

The Internet is the greatest business tool ever invented, but with it comes a harrowing collection of threats. Protecting against the circulation of inappropriate images and text, spam, breaches of confidentiality, and viruses is now mission critical.

Clearswift enables organizations to protect themselves against digital attacks, meet legal and regulatory requirements, implement productivity-saving policies and manage intellectual property passing through their network.

About MIMEsweeper(TM) for SMTP 5.0

MIMEsweeper for SMTP 5.0 is the most comprehensive enterprise class e-mail content security solution available in the market, delivering the best scalability and robustness anywhere. It is a best-of-breed solution that counters all content security threats -- spam, viruses, worms, Trojan horses and DOS attacks, while allowing companies to remain compliant and meet best practice standards.

MIMEsweeper allows consistent policy definition and enforcement through automated policy replication. This new version incorporates a "roles-based" approach to administration too, moving mail management from back office to the front office. This allows, for example, the HR department -- rather than IT -- to implement company mail policy on, say, profanity, sexism or racism. Its unique approach to system management allows for hierarchical devolvement of duties to multiple administrators. IT managers can delegate specific responsibilities, such as server monitoring, access to particular quarantine areas and reporting, to the most appropriate administrators or department, therefore spreading the load of administration and significantly reducing the time it takes to process blocked e-mails.

About e-Sweeper(TM)

e-Sweeper is a managed e-mail content security solution for service providers. Experienced professionals handle protection from content threats at the e-mail gateway, freeing the organization from the cost of implementing the hardware, software and administration expertise necessary to effectively stop the myriad of content security threats.

Clearswift, MAILsweeper, MIMEsweeper, spamActive and ENTERPRISEsuite are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States, United Kingdom and certain other countries, of Clearswift Limited. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.

Percentage
                                                   of the
Sub                                                 sub     Percentage
Sections             Details             Totals   section    of Total
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Direct
Products   Xmas related                      11        0.3%      0.06%
           e-cards                           16        0.4%      0.08%
           Pirate music, games,
            video, etc.                     164        4.0%      0.84%
           Software                        1333       32.9%      6.84%
           Spyware, adware, anti-virus      252        6.2%      1.29%
           Watches                         1101       27.2%      5.65%
           Others                          1177       29.0%      6.04%
           Sub Total                       4054      100.0%     20.81%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Finance    Stock related                    105        5.3%      0.54%
           Others                          1882       94.7%      9.66%
           Sub Total                       1987      100.0%     10.20%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gambling   Sub Total                        100      100.0%      0.51%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Healthcare Weight Loss related              193        2.1%      0.99%
           Others                          8936       97.9%     45.87%
           Sub Total                       9129      100.0%     46.86%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Others     Clipping service                  68        4.6%      0.35%
           Double Byte character             14        0.9%      0.07%
           US Election                       55        3.7%      0.28%
           Group Test                       364       24.5%      1.87%
           Halloween related                  6        0.4%      0.03%
           Market Research                    6        0.4%      0.03%
           Marketing (help for
            marketeers)                      46        3.1%      0.24%
           University degrees and
            courses                          80        5.4%      0.41%
           Others                           845       56.9%      4.34%
           Sub Total                       1484      100.0%      7.62%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Porn       Sub Total                       1350      100.0%      6.93%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Spam
Related    Sub Total                          0      100.0%      0.00%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Scams      AmSouth                            2        0.1%      0.01%
           Barclays                           1        0.1%      0.01%
           CitiBank                         656       47.6%      3.37%
           Citizen Bank                       4        0.3%      0.02%
           HSBC                              62        4.5%      0.32%
           Lloyds                             2        0.1%      0.01%
           Smith Barney                     126        9.2%      0.65%
           Sun Trust                         86        6.2%      0.44%
           Wells Fargo                       40        2.9%      0.21%
           Avoiding speeding fines           82        6.0%      0.42%
           Others                           316       22.9%      1.62%
           Sub Total                       1377      100.0%      7.07%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL                                     19481      100.0%    100.00%
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