Security threats Toolkit

Asian spammers 'hijack broadband PCs'

Tags:
Spammers,
Spam Relay,
Broadband,
Philippines

Staff, CNETAsia CNETAsia

Published: 21 Oct 2003 09:30 BST

Home and small business computers in Western countries are being hijacked as spam relays by groups operating in Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and other parts of Asia, according to a security firm.

These "new breed" spam relays -- computers configured to send out thousands of unsolicited bulk emails -- have become more common as more homes and business install always-on broadband Internet connections, said UK-based security firm mi2g.

Many of these PCs "do not possess even a basic firewall, never mind intrusion detection capabilities", according to the report.

"The other benefit in targeting home computers for spam relay purposes is that they are often issued with dynamic or changeable IP addresses… each time the computer is switched on and the Internet connectivity is activated, a different IP address is allocated… thus making it more difficult to hold the source of the spam to account," it continued.

The report went on to say that homes and small business PCs in Canada, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, the UK and the US have been "compromised for spam relay purposes in recent months", though it did not cite figures or the source of the information.

Mi2g said the spam emails have electronic signature trails which "consistently lead back to spammers based primarily in China and Russia as well as Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Hungary, Malaysia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand and Taiwan".

Many of the hijacked computers become spam relays after being infected by Trojan horses planted on Web sites or through spam itself, said the report.

The security firms suggested possible fixes for the problem, such as authorities passing regulations that would make each computer owner responsible for the always-on connection, or for Internet service providers to keep an eye on customers who seem to be consuming too much bandwidth.

Unsolicited bulk email probably makes up a third of the email traffic seen on the Internet. Some reports put the ratio as high as 1-in-2. Some spammers apparently are resorting to spreading viruses as well: many security experts believe that the Sobig family of viruses have been spread to aid spammers.

News.com's Robert Lemos contributed to this report.