Rate of Email Spam Containing Shortened URLs Rises

[Peaches]

Rate of Email Spam Containing Shortened URLs Rises

Trend expected to continue

Security researchers from MessageLabs, Symantec's email security arm, warn that spammers are increasingly using shortened URLs in their campaigns. Compared to the first half of 2009 when one in 1,769 spam emails contained a shortened URL, the ratio for H1 2010, was of one in 76. The trend is expected to continue.

The top known threat sending this type of spam is the new Storm botnet, which outputs 11.83% of junk emails containing shortened URL. Other spam botnets like Rustok, Maazben, Cutwail or Mega-D, have not yet adopted the practice and are each putting out less than 1%.

"URL shortening services work by hiding the URL of the true website by replacing it with the domain of the service followed by a unique key that redirects the visitor to the original website. When spammers include a shortened URL in their spam messages, these shortened hyperlinks contain reputable and legitimate domains, making it harder for traditional anti-spam filters to identify the messages as spam based on the reputation of the domains found in the spam emails," the MessageLabs researchers explain.

Full article - http://news.softpedi...es-149986.shtml