Abuse of free web hosting and blogging sites to increase in 2009

Abuse of free webhosting and blogging sites by spammers will increase in 2009.

According to McAfee's January threat report, spammers will increasingly abuse the free web hosting and blogging abilities that don't require the purchase of a domain name.

Using what it calls ‘domain tasting', McAfee claims that spammers will utilise ICANN's five-day “grace period” that allows an individual to register a domain name and return it for a full refund within five days. It claimed that online advertisers, registrars and spammers have been taking advantage of this policy to register hundreds of thousands of domains on a daily basis, try them out for a few days, and then return them back to the registry for a full refund.

ICANN reported that its Add Grace Period deletes are down by 84 per cent since June, meaning that there are now fewer daily registrations of profane or malicious domains and more general, available for legitimate use.

The report stated: “However, it's important to realise that this measure is only a temporary short-solution that the board has put in until a permanent consensus on domain tasting can be achieved in the community.

“The proposal for permanent change is now available for public comment and we encourage everyone to give ICANN feedback on this practice proposed policy change.”

It also claimed that there will be an increase in the forging and abuse of free email services as they have started to allow accounts to send mails with arbitrary ‘from' addresses, which has increased the usability of these services significantly to businesses, but has also increased the ‘abusability' by spammers.

Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs, said: “Spammers have become smarter, quicker and more professional with their attacks and are leveraging what's in the news more than ever to tailor their messaging. With more people out of work or self employed going into 2009, beware of communication offering low-cost degrees and do-it-yourself kits as well as any requests for financial information from what looks like your bank, school or investment firm.”

See original article on scmagazineuk.com

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