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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...

9 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. 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
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

  5. 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.
  6. 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?

  7. 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