We have relaunched: What's new at ZDNet Asia?

McAfee: Watch out for 'island-hopping' spam

Summary

Small, tropical islands are becoming a favored home for junk e-mailers, the security company's researchers have found.

Events

Microsoft MSDN/Developer Event
25 Mar 2010

One Marina Boulevard, Microsoft Singapore

IT Architect Regional Conference Singapore 2010
20 - 21 Apr 2010

Singapore Management University, Singapore

The Internet Show 2010
21-22 Apr 2010

Suntec Singapore

McAfee's antispam researchers have been tracking a trend they have nicknamed "spam island-hopping."

Some spammers are using the domain names of small islands for Web site links in their junk e-mail campaigns, the security company said. McAfee has traced spam activity related to the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and the tropical island of Tokelau, amongst others.

Traditionally, spammers have used well-known top-level domains such as .com, .biz or .info in their campaigns. By using top-level domains from small island countries, they attempt to avoid detection, as these domains are typically unknown to spam filters.

Using a lesser-known top level domain makes it harder to distinguish spam from legitimate e-mail by examining the links in the messages, according to McAfee.

The trend was discovered when McAfee researchers noticed a significant increase in the use of .st, the top-level domain for Sao Tome and Principe, an island off the west coast of Africa, the company said.

Junk e-mail using top-level domains from small islands continues to increase, it added.

"This new trend is another example of spammers' relentless quest to spread their abuse of Internet domains far and wide," said Guy Roberts, the senior development manager for McAfee Anti-Spam Research and Development Team. "Some of these islands have dozens of spammed domains per square mile."

McAfee has identified the following small islands as favored by spammers: Tokelau, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Tuvalu, American Samoa, the Isle of Man, Tonga, and Sao Tome and Principe.

Talkback

Add your opinion

In order to post a comment, you need to be registered. (Sign In or register below)

Post your comment
Transform your business interactions with real-time voice, video and telepresence solutions.
Tech Vendor: Cisco

ZDNet Asia Live

Zdnetasia.com Estimated Worth $178,365 USD. Daily Ad Revenue:$244 USD, Daily Views:81,445 Pages... - http://www.haplog.com/www.zdneta...

recently estimated website net worth of zdnetasia.com - http://www.haplog.com/www.zdneta...

7 hours 10 minutes ago by haplog on topsy

When I create an event, I click on an approximate time during the day when I want the event to occur, then I click "edit event detail...

21 hours 46 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Google Calendar gets 'smart' rescheduling

ipads break alott i had one it broke three times in the month i had it so i got rid of the damn thing id just go for the laptop Top Grade...

21 hours 48 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Report: 'Hundreds of thousands' of iPad preorders

There are a number of websites that still require Internet Explorer to view and IE for Mac Stinks (it is really ies4osx which is the Wind...

21 hours 50 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Microsoft: Only minor tweaks in Windows 7 SP1

The receivers don't transmit back to the satellite. Unless there is a phone line attached to the receiver, they don't have any wa...

21 hours 52 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Apple to join the geolocation craze?

What to expect from open source Symbian http://is.gd/aPIGL

22 hours 8 minutes ago by rebelk0de on topsy

"Lead Cognos BI Developer Insurance - Jobs - ZDNet Asia" http://bit.ly/bRcxOG

22 hours 47 minutes ago by rhrcognos on topsy

whatever little understanding I have we 'll only progress toward end of the world if we use HPCs to lenthen life of human being. Huma...

1 day 59 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on High computing promises elixir of life

Thanks for the knowledgeable article on SDDs. Allas...when all this reasearch will happen in Indian Universities. Hope the new bill on Fo...

1 day 12 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on APAC HPC users eye solid-state drives

It was a good article. This brings a good opportunity for Indian IT firms to come up with new solutions in this field. HPC can become a b...

1 day 30 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on High computing most-wanted job in Asia

COL KR DHARMADHIKARY(RETD) its very late to reply the link, but if it is still alive and looking for opportunity, i would like to know th...

1 day 28 minutes ago by deb021280 on Education takes off in rural India, helped by PCs

It was just a matter of time until google was marginalised anyway. I'm afraid this will be forgotten in China very quickly. Still, it...

1 day 33 minutes ago by robinsmith on Report: Google to leave China on April 10

High performance computing (HPC) most-wanted job in Asia http://bit.ly/9vFC3i (via @zdnetasia) #singapore

He doesn't care if her shoes are of glass, All he wants to see is a huge rack and nice a*s. Sleeping beauty's not awoken by true ...

1 day 1 minute ago by warlowdavies on One pair of 3D glasses to rule them all

RT @zdnetasia: EMC COO, Pat Gelsinger, on bridging gaps in the organization and its cloud ambitions in Asia. (cont) http://tl.gd/i5jjd

EMC COO, Pat Gelsinger, on bridging gaps in the organization and its cloud ambitions in Asia. http://bit.ly/9etOZW

Asian SMBs need to pay more attention to disaster recovery planning http://bit.ly/bDet08 via @zdnetasia

Asian SMBs need to pay more attention to disaster recovery planning http://bit.ly/bDet08

[TECH] URL Shorteners slow Web redirection. - http://bit.ly/bySnWK @zdnetasia

URL shorteners are great but they can slow web redirection & you pray it would never go down http://bit.ly/bySnWK via @zdnetasia

Temasek Holdings eyeing tech stocks, indicating optimistic outlook on IT sector. http://bit.ly/aM7VwU

URL shorteners slow Web redirection. http://bit.ly/bySnWK

Chinese agencies cry foul over Google. http://bit.ly/by6rwV

Philippine antipiracy drive focuses on enterprises. http://bit.ly/aWryDC

Gartner: China to become world's fastest-growing enterprise software market. http://bit.ly/bqJTtb

all of sg's isps have been practising compulsory invisible proxy for all home subscribers at their backend since many years back alre...

2 days 11 minutes ago by melvinchia on Web filters mean bad news for business

it is not to good for china.
Proactol

2 days 56 minutes ago by nathonastle on Chinese ad partners beg Google for information

RT @zdnetasia: HP touts new products and management and productivity tools to address business computing pain points. http://bit.ly/dudgA6

For those with a computer science background, or interested in the high performance computing scene: http://bit.ly/9vFC3i

IT security insiders rob casinos of $50K http://is.gd/aPIKR

3 days 28 minutes ago by rebelk0de on topsy

Very good explanation of JMX

3 days 1 minute ago by Babith B on Managing applications with JMX

The reaction to a report issued Tuesday by Flurry Analytics managed to completely overlook some interesting news--the Android-based Motorola Droid outsold the original iPhone over the same period of time following their respective launches--to focus instead on the sales numbers for the Nexus One.

3 days 5 minutes ago by lonemavericks on diggs

Another ZTE story....

4 days 7 minutes ago by Moderate Your Greed on Philippines opens bid for final 3G license

We at www.fifosys.com have also seen a growth in IT outsourcing and anticipate it as a growing field.

4 days 40 minutes ago by sarah Jane on Companies' outsourcing spend to increase