Segmented Russian “spam leads” offered for sale


By Dancho Danchev

What is the Russian underground up to when it comes to ‘spear phishing’ attacks? How prevalent is the tactic among Russian cybercriminals? What “data acquisition tactics” do they rely on, and just how sophisticated are their “data mining” capabilities?

Let’s find out by emphasizing on a recent underground market advertisement offering access to data which can greatly improve the click-through rate for a spear phishing campaign. The irony? It’s being pitched as “spam leads”.

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A peek inside a managed spam service


By Dancho Danchev

Just how easy is it to become a spammer in 2012? Too easy to be true.

Especially in times when everything needed to become a spammer, starting for a managed spam appliance, DIY email harvesters, and millions of harvested emails, are available for sale within the cybercrime ecosystem. Despite the numerous botnet take downs we’ve seen in recent years, spam and phishing attacks continue plaguing millions of end and corporate users, potentially exposing them to malicious links, malicious payloads and fraudulent propositions.

In this post, I’ll profile a Russian managed spam service that’s been in operation for 5 years, allowing novice cybercriminals an easy entry into the world of spamming.

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