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WLANs As Spam Conduit

Posted by chrisd on from the spammers-are-still-evil dept.

Saint Aardvark writes "According to this article, a honeypot was recently set up on two wireless LANs. 25% of the connections observed were deliberate, and 71% of those were to send spam. Even more reason to take care of your ether." These statistics should be taken with a salt lick...

17 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. How about... by ilduce · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...public vigilante executions of spammers? Kinda like a citizens arrest, but more permenant. Just a thought.

    1. Re:How about... by dev11 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Unsolicited email is annoying, but I guess what really angers me about the majority of the spam I get is:

      Sleaziness. Penis enlargers, teen sluts, and porn of questionable legality. If I had young kids, this would really piss me off if they got sent this crap.

      Fraud. This is somewhat related to the above. Most of these products are most likely frauds, or of questionable value. Masking your identity through forging headers, using open relays and the like. If your product is so great, you shouldn't have to hide yourself. Spam is the snake oil of the new century.

      Intrusiveness. Embedding images in HTML email that the client fetches and confirms your email is "live", so it can be sold and put on more spam lists. I am still in the stone age and use pine and never HTML mail, but most non tech people use Outlook, which has this as default behavior. Also, claiming that I opted in and now I need to specifically opt out, with some form that probably just confirms my address is pretty low.

      Volume. When I get 50 spam mail messages a day, and 10 or so legitimate messages, email as a communications medium is seriously flawed in it's present form. Many get hundreds of spams a day. Blacklists and Spam Assassin help some, but there are too many false positives.

      Commercial email is OK, provided that I signed up for it and the company doesn't try to hide their identity. Some of this is actually useful at times. It would be nice if there could be an analog of a do not call list for email, but that is not technically feasible at present with the current protocol. A new protocol needs to be implemented. As much as I hate spam, I prefer technical solutions rather than handing control to the government. Even if there were spam laws (I know some states have them), they are ineffectual.

  2. Please, keep the internet free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Block all ports except 80 if you have to... just don't take away my free access!

  3. tequila by Entropy_ah · · Score: 5, Funny

    These statistics should be taken with a salt lick...
    Does spam go well with tequila?

    --
    my other penis is a vagina
  4. Spam on the cell. by zbowling · · Score: 5, Informative

    Spam and telemarketing calls to a persons cell phone (or any system where the person that is being called has to pay for the call) is currently illegal in the states under telecommunications act of 1989. Its the same act that allows us to ask to be put on a company's not calling list and sue if they call back. Do a google for it. Some cool ways to protect yourself using the law.

    --
    No.
  5. Um...no. by waldoj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait, so this company, "Z/Yen," has determined that 71% of malicious connections to wireless networks are used for sending spam, and they've done so on the strength of setting up a grand total of two WiFi hotspots in one unspecified city (which I assume to be London, because that's where they're located) for an unspecifed time span...and this leads to conclusive results? That's just stupid.

    In other news, based on my survey of my apartment, 75% of people are running Mac OS X, and 25% are running Linux.

    -Waldo Jaquith

    1. Re:Um...no. by zapatero · · Score: 5, Funny

      So two security companies set out to do "research" on WLAN access and the results of their findings conclude that security is needed. These are staggering results. Who woulda guessed.

      It's ground breaking research. It ranks up there with Philip Morris' discovery that lung cancer is cuased primarily by cat dander. And McDonald's dietary discovery that low cholesterol leads to depression and suicide.

  6. Clarity by John+Paul+Jones · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The survey found that almost a quarter of unauthorised connections to the WLANs were intentional, with 71 percent used to send emails.

    Umm... First, this means that 75% of the connections were not intentional? Is this the equivalent of 75 people saying they're sorry for stepping on your toes, while 25 people did it on purpose?

    Second, define "emails". Is that 10? 10,000?

    This seems a bit alarmist.

    --
    Feh.
  7. Serious? by molrak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So let me get this straight. As opposed to just sitting in the apartments or offices or whatever, spammers are now riding around major urban areas trying to find insecure wireless networks? This, to me, would seem to be a tremendous waste of time.

    I'll admit, I don't understand why people spam; but the economics of such a thing simply don't seem practicle. The 25% would seem to be about right to me, but that 18% of the total was just for spam, just doesn't seem to add up.

    Then again, as Mark Twain said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

    --
    You're only as smart as your brain.
  8. Misquote by Mattygfunk1 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ... and 71% of those were to send spam.

    The summary misquotes the article here. 71% of the connections sent email - not necessarily spam email. I am surprised the figure wasn't higher.

    Anyway it is hardly groundbreaking news that you have to secure wireless internet connections.

    _____
    cheap web site hosting

  9. public spots by saben78 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's easy for the home and business admin to secure his/her AP. But how do public access places like airports and StarBucks counter drive by spamming?

    Any ideas?

  10. Oh, take heed! by interstellar_donkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Remember folks, there are surly looking spammers driving through your surburbian neighborhood right now just looking to abuse your DSL connection through your unsecured access point to send spam.

    So if your router gives out a DHCP address in the middle of the night, run outside in your pajamas with a baseball bat. There are spammers you need to teach a lesson.

    --
    The Internet is generally stupid
  11. Get-rich-quick scheme by xintegerx · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just received in e-mail..

    1) Sue for "Cable Theft" (if cable ISP)

    2) Sue for "Denial of Service Attack" (since the intent of spam is to fill up your mailbox, causing you to give up real e-mails.)

    3) Sue for "Espionage" if you both received a 'viagra' spamvertisement and the e-mail says it's not commercial spam, because if it's non-commercial, they were watching you through a window and wanted to notify you of viagra!

    4) Is the spam for an ergonomic peripheral, like mouse or keyboard or computer chair? Or maybe, the company offers you pills to decrease your hormonones? In either case, this means they think you might have repetitive stress syndrome from using your... tool. This is either "Espionage" (they saw it), or "Intent of Deliberate Harm" (they e-mail you so much shit, they KNOW you are guaranteed to have RSS in your wrists....

    5) ???

    6) Profit

    --

    Cover your eyes and click this link!
  12. Bad logic. by twitter · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Huh? What statistics? Where was this thing set up? How many hits did they record, 4? Did they deliver the spam? Was the welcome message, "Tell all your leet friends about the spam relay here!" Is someone at the RSA office the type that thinks they can make a fast buck selling dick enlargers? F+

    The study, as presented is useless except to divide people. They might have just as well said that the internet itself was evil for enabling spam. I can say the same thing about materials used to make billboards. The RSA says, "Don't share, people." Great!

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  13. Re:4 percent? by eander315 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Read that sentence a little closer. It says that 25% of the connections were deliberate, and among those connections, 71% were used for spam. That means that something like 17% of the total connections were used for spam.

    The other 75% is the part that is presumably connecting by mistake.

  14. Re:Not that I buy the figures, but... by weave · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Sigh, spammers ruin everything. I often use public hot spots when traveling to quickly slurp up some e-mail and send out pending e-mail (via an authenticated SMTP connection at my business host).

    I have Mac Stumbler running on my laptop and it pings me whenever I drive past a hotspot. Sometimes the hotspot will be named "public" or "public hotspot" even. (Saw a few of these in Tempe, Arizona. Was pretty amazed, and grateful).

    So if you're running one, I thank you.

  15. a bit slow by BenjyD · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the honeypot test, the first unauthorised connection to the WLANs was made in just over two-and-a-half hours.

    There was a TV show in the UK that recently did something similar to this with bike theft. They left an unlocked bicycle on the high street of a northern town and set up hidden cameras to watch. Somebody nicked the bike within 30 seconds of the owner walking away. I guess spammers are a bit slower than your average criminal.