Category Archives: Ron Guilmette

Who’s Behind the Screencam Extortion Scam?

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The sextortion email scam last month that invoked a real password used by each recipient and threatened to release embarrassing Webcam videos almost certainly was not the work of one criminal or even one group of criminals. Rather, it’s likely that additional spammers and scammers piled on with their own versions of the phishing email after noticing that some recipients were actually paying up. The truth is we may never find out who’s responsible, but it’s still fun to follow some promising early leads and see where they take us. Continue reading Who’s Behind the Screencam Extortion Scam?→

Notorious ‘Hijack Factory’ Shunned from Web

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Score one for the good guys: Bitcanal, a Portuguese Web hosting firm long accused of helping spammers hijack large swaths of dormant Internet address space over the years, was summarily kicked off the Internet this week after a half-dozen of the company’s bandwidth providers chose to sever ties with the company. Continue reading Notorious ‘Hijack Factory’ Shunned from Web→

Is it Time to Can the CAN-SPAM Act?

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Regulators at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are asking for public comment on the effectiveness of the CAN-SPAM Act, a 14-year-old federal law that seeks to crack down on unsolicited commercial email. Judging from an unscientific survey by this author, the FTC is bound to get an earful. Continue reading Is it Time to Can the CAN-SPAM Act?→

Tracing Spam: Diet Pills from Beltway Bandits

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Reading junk spam messages isn’t exactly my idea of a good time, but sometimes fun can be had when you take a moment to check who really sent the email. Here’s the simple story of how a recent spam email advertising celebrity “diet pills” was traced back to a Washington, D.C.-area defense contractor that builds tactical communications systems for the U.S. military and intelligence communities. Continue reading Tracing Spam: Diet Pills from Beltway Bandits→

The Reincarnation of a Bulletproof Hoster

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In April 2016, security firm Trend Micro published a damning report about a Web hosting provider referred to only as a “cyber-attack facilitator in the Netherlands.” If the Trend analysis lacked any real punch that might have been because — shortly after the report was published — names were redacted so that it was no longer immediately clear exactly who the bad hosting provider was. This post aims to shine a bit more light on the individuals apparently behind this mysterious rogue hosting firm — a company called HostSailor[dot]com. Continue reading The Reincarnation of a Bulletproof Hoster→

Carbanak Gang Tied to Russian Security Firm?

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Among the more plunderous cybercrime gangs is a group known as “Carbanak,” Eastern European hackers blamed for stealing more than a billion dollars from banks. Today we’ll examine some compelling clues that point to a connection between the Carbanak gang’s staging grounds and a Russian security firm that claims to work with some of the world’s largest brands in cybersecurity. Continue reading Carbanak Gang Tied to Russian Security Firm?→