FTC KICKS OFF OPERATION SPAM ZOMBIES by Dave Murphy, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ISSN 1535-3613
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 35 government partners from more than 20 countries are targeting illegal spammers who take remote control of unwitting users' computers to serve as spam transmission zombies. By hijacking home and business computers, spam can be routed through them, thereby hiding the true source of the spam and making the enforcement of antispam laws more difficult. According to the FTC website, Operation Spam Zombies was announced yesterday as an international campaign to educate Internet Service Providers and other Internet connectivity providers about hijacked, or zombie computers that spammers use to flood in-boxes here and abroad. Twenty members of the London Action Plan, an international network combating spam, and 16 additional government agencies who will participate in Operation Spam Zombies will send letters to more than 3,000 ISPs around the world, urging them to employ protective measures to prevent their customers� computers from being hijacked by spammers. The measures include: 1. block port 25 except for the outbound SMTP requirements of authenticated users of mail servers designed for client traffic. Explore implementing Authenticated SMTP on port 587 for clients who must operate outgoing mail servers. 2. apply rate-limiting controls for email relays. 3. identify computers that are sending atypical amounts of email, and take steps to determine if the computer is acting as a spam zombie. When necessary, quarantine the affected computer until the source of the problem is removed. 4. give your customers plain-language advice on how to prevent their computers from being infected by worms, Trojans, or other malware that turn PCs into spam zombies, and provide the appropriate tools and assistance. 5. provide, or point your customers to, easy-to-use tools to remove zombie code if their computers have been infected, and provide the appropriate assistance. Dave's Opinion These are good first steps for security-aware ISPs to take in throttling the transmission of spam. Call for Comments What do you think? Leave your comments on the message center: http://itrain.org/msg/ References Federal Trade Commission: http://ftc.gov/ Press Release: http://ftc.gov/opa/2005/05/zombies.htm Operation Spam Zombies: http://ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/zombie/ Message Center: http://itrain.org/msg/ This article is posted to http://itrain.org/itinfo/ --- Do good; live well. To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a 1-line body (not a subject line): UNSUBSCRIBE ITINFO email_address [substitute the email address you subscribed to the list] Do NOT hit the reply button; you won't get off the list. Send your unsubscription message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Receive computing and Internet news & tips right to your e-mail box by subscribing to ITinfo, a free publication of ITrain, the International Association of Informaiton Technology Trainers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the value and quality of IT training worldwide. Visit our Web site to submit your private subscription: http://itrain.org/. If you have an advertising message that you would to be read by the world's top IT trainers and training organizations, sponsor the next issue of the ITinfo e-zine. Details are posted on our site: http://itrain.org/itinfo/ad.html. Past ITinfo issues are permanently posted to our Web site: http://itrain.org/itinfo/. Comments and article submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] This article may be copied and distributed in its entirety with permission from the association. Please call 410.290.7000 or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for simple details. Copyright (C) 2003, International Association of Information Technology Trainers, Ltd., All Rights Reserved _______________________________________ EDSAMAIL. Internet the way YOU WANT IT. www.edsamail.com.ph ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give the gift of life to a sick child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/h8TXDC/6WnJAA/HwKMAA/oNXolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Ask our other classmates to subscribe, tell them to send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4c-math94/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
