Evaluation of Bayesian Spam Filter and SVM Spam Filter

CD-RO

Emerging Phishing Trends and Effectiveness of the Anti-Phishing Landing Page

Each month, more attacks are launched with the aim of making web users believe that they are communicating with a trusted entity which compels them to share their personal, financial information. Phishing costs Internet users billions of dollars every year. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) created an anti-phishing landing page supported by Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) with the aim to train users on how to prevent themselves from phishing attacks. It is used by financial institutions, phish site take down vendors, government organizations, and online merchants. When a potential victim clicks on a phishing link that has been taken down, he / she is redirected to the landing page. In this paper, we present the comparative analysis on two datasets that we obtained from APWG's landing page log files; one, from September 7, 2008 - November 11, 2009, and other from January 1, 2014 - April 30, 2014. We found that the landing page has been successful in training users against phishing. Forty six percent users clicked lesser number of phishing URLs from January 2014 to April 2014 which shows that training from the landing page helped users not to fall for phishing attacks. Our analysis shows that phishers have started to modify their techniques by creating more legitimate looking URLs and buying large number of domains to increase their activity. We observed that phishers are exploiting ICANN accredited registrars to launch their attacks even after strict surveillance. We saw that phishers are trying to exploit free subdomain registration services to carry out attacks. In this paper, we also compared the phishing e-mails used by phishers to lure victims in 2008 and 2014. We found that the phishing e-mails have changed considerably over time. Phishers have adopted new techniques like sending promotional e-mails and emotionally targeting users in clicking phishing URLs

Unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam): integrated policy and practice

The internet offers a cost-effective medium to build better relationships with customers than has been possible with traditional marketing media. Internet technologies, such as electronic mail, web sites and digital media, offer companies the ability to expand their customer reach, to target specific communities, and to communicate and interact with customers in a highly customised manner. In the last few years, electronic mail has emerged as an important marketing tool to build and maintain closer relationships both with customers and with prospects. E-mail marketing has become a popular choice for companies as it greatly reduces the costs associated with previously conventional methods such as direct mailing, cataloguing (i.e. sending product catalogues to potential customers) and telecommunication marketing. As small consumers obtain e-mail addresses, the efficiency of using e-mail as a marketing tool will grow. While e-mail may be a boon for advertisers, it is a problem for consumers, corporations and internet service providers since it is used for sending 'spam' (junk-mail). Unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), which is commonly called spam, impinges on the privacy of individual internet users. It can also cost users in terms of the time spent reading and deleting the messages, as well as in a direct financial sense where users pay time-based connection fees. Spam, which most frequently takes the form of mass mailing advertisements, is a violation of internet etiquette (EEMA, 2002). This thesis shows that spam is an increasing problem for information society citizens. For the senders of spam, getting the message to millions of people is easy and cost-effective, but for the receivers the cost of receiving spam is financial, time-consuming, resource-consuming, possibly offensive or even illegal, and also dangerous for information systems. The problem is recognised by governments who have attempted legislative measures, but these have had little impact because of the combined difficulties of crossing territorial boundaries and of continuously evasive originating addresses. Software developers are attempting to use technology to tackle the problem, but spammers keep one step ahead, for example by adapting subject headings to avoid filters. Filters have difficulty differentiating between legitimate e-mail and unwanted e-mail, so that while we may reduce our junk we may also reduce our wanted messages. Putting filter control into the hands of individual users results in an unfair burden, in that there is a cost of time and expertise from the user. Where filter control is outsourced to expert third parties, solving the time and expertise problems, the cost becomes financial. Given the inadequacy of legislation, and the unreliability of technical applications to resolve the problem, there is an unfair burden on information society citizens. This research has resulted in the conclusion that cooperation between legislation and technology is the most effective way to handle and manage spam, and that therefore a defence in depth should be based on a combination of those two strategies. The thesis reviews and critiques attempts at legislation, self-regulation and technical solutions. It presents a case for an integrated and user-oriented approach, and provides recommendations

Wireless Spam This Way Comes: An Analysis of the Spread of Wireless Spam and the Present and Proposed Measures Taken to Stop It, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 229 (2003)

Spam in the form of unsolicited unwanted e-mail is already a recognized concern in the United States. However, a different type of spam, wireless spam, is starting to make its way to the United States. Wireless spam targets items cell phones with text messaging capabilities, pagers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). These devices tend to be heavily relied on by their respective owners who bring these devices wherever they go, so to receive wireless spam represents a greater level of privacy intrusion. This article analyzes the various legislative measures that have been considered to regulate spam. It recognizes that most of these legislative measures do not take into account the inevitable arrival of wireless spam. Advocating a proactive stance, this article suggests an integrated bill that would incorporate the strongest parts of each legislative measure considered. The final bill the article recommends would carry heavy fines for violations, higher statutory amounts that states or individuals may recover as damages, and the scope of the bill would include wireless spam

Internet... the final frontier: an ethnographic account: exploring the cultural space of the Net from the inside

The research project The Internet as a space for interaction, which completed its mission in Autumn 1998, studied the constitutive features of network culture and network organisation. Special emphasis was given to the dynamic interplay of technical and social conventions regarding both the Net’s organisation as well as its change. The ethnographic perspective chosen studied the Internet from the inside. Research concentrated upon three fields of study: the hegemonial operating technology of net nodes (UNIX) the network’s basic transmission technology (the Internet Protocol IP) and a popular communication service (Usenet). The project’s final report includes the results of the three branches explored. Drawing upon the development in the three fields it is shown that changes that come about on the Net are neither anarchic nor arbitrary. Instead, the decentrally organised Internet is based upon technically and organisationally distributed forms of coordination within which individual preferences collectively attain the power of developing into definitive standards. --

CPA\u27s guide to understanding and controlling spam

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1198/thumbnail.jp

Towards eradication of SPAM: A study on intelligent adaptive SPAM filters

As the massive increase of electronic mail (email) usage continues, SPAM (unsolicited bulk email), has continued to grow because it is a very inexpensive method of advertising. These unwanted emails can cause a serious problem by filling up the email inbox and thereby leaving no space for legitimate emails to pass through. Currently the only defense against SPAM is the use of SPAM filters. A novel SPAM filter GetEmail5 along with the design rationale, is described in this thesis. To test the efficacy of GetEmail5 SPAM filter, an experimental setup was created and a commercial bulk email program was used to send SPAM and non-SPAM emails to test the new SPAM filter. GetEmail5's efficiency and ability to detect SPAM was compared against two highly ranked commercial SPAM filters on different sets of emails, these included all SPAM, non-SPAM, and mixed emails, also text and HTML emails. The results showed the superiority of GetEmail5 compared to the two commercial SPAM filters in detecting SPAM emails and reducing the user's involvement in categorizing the incoming emails. This thesis demonstrates the design rationale for GetEmail5 and also its greater effectiveness in comparison with the commercial SPAM filters tested

The regulation of unsolicited electronic communications (SPAM) in South Africa : a comparative study

The practice of spamming (sending unsolicited electronic communications) has been dubbed “the scourge of the 21st century” affecting different stakeholders. This practice is also credited for not only disrupting electronic communications but also, it overloads electronic systems and creates unnecessary costs for those affected than the ones responsible for sending such communications. In trying to address this issue nations have implemented anti-spam laws to combat the scourge. South Africa not lagging behind, has put in place anti-spam provisions to deal with the scourge. The anti-spam provisions are scattered in pieces of legislation dealing with diverse issues including: consumer protection; direct marketing; credit laws; and electronic transactions and communications. In addition to these provisions, an Amendment Bill to one of these laws and two Bills covering cybercrimes and cyber-security issues have been published. In this thesis, a question is asked on whether the current fragmented anti-spam provisions are adequate in protecting consumers. Whether the overlaps between these pieces of legislation are competent to deal with the ever increasing threats on electronic communications at large. Finally, the question as to whether a multi-faceted approach, which includes a Model Law on spam would be a suitable starting point setting out requirements for the sending of unsolicited electronic communications can be sufficient in protecting consumers. And as spam is not only a national but also a global problem, South Africa needs to look at the option of entering into mutual agreements with other countries and organisations in order to combat spam at a global level.Mercantile LawLL. D

The Mobile Generation: Global Transformations at the Cellular Level

Every year we see a new dimension of the ongoing Digital Revolution, which is enabling an abundance of information to move faster, cheaper, in more intelligible forms, in more directions, and across borders of every kind. The exciting new dimension on which the Aspen Institute focused its 2006 Roundtable on Information Technology was mobility, which is making the Digital Revolution ubiquitous. As of this writing, there are over two billion wireless subscribers worldwide and that number is growing rapidly. People are constantly innovating in the use of mobile technologies to allow them to be more interconnected. Almost a half century ago, Ralph Lee Smith conjured up "The Wired Nation," foretelling a world of interactive communication to and from the home that seems commonplace in developed countries today. Now we have a "Wireless World" of communications potentially connecting two billion people to each other with interactive personal communications devices. Widespead adoption of wireless handsets, the increasing use of wireless internet, and the new, on-the-go content that characterizes the new generation of users are changing behaviors in social, political and economic spheres. The devices are easy to use, pervasive and personal. The affordable cell phone has the potential to break down the barriers of poverty and accessibility previously posed by other communications devices. An entire generation that is dependant on ubiquitous mobile technologies is changing the way it works, plays and thinks. Businesses, governments, educational institutions, religious and other organizations in turn are adapting to reach out to this mobile generation via wireless technologies -- from SMS-enabled vending machines in Finland to tech-savvy priests in India willing to conduct prayers transmitted via cell phones. Cellular devices are providing developing economies with opportunities unlike any others previously available. By opening the lines of communication, previously disenfranchised groups can have access to information relating to markets, economic opportunities, jobs, and weather to name just a few. When poor village farmers from Bangladesh can auction their crops on a craigslist-type service over the mobile phone, or government officials gain instantaneous information on contagious diseases via text message, the miracles of mobile connectivity move us from luxury to necessity. And we are only in the early stages of what the mobile electronic communications will mean for mankind. We are now "The Mobile Generation." Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology. To explore the implications of these phenomena, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program convened 27 leaders from business, academia, government and the non-profit sector to engage in three days of dialogue on related topics. Some are experts in information and communications technologies, others are leaders in the broader society affected by these innovations. Together, they examined the profound changes ahead as a result of the convergence of wireless technologies and the Internet. In the following report of the Roundtable meeting held August 1-4, 2006, J. D. Lasica, author of Darknet and co-founder of Ourmedia.org, deftly sets up, contextualizes, and captures the dialogue on the impact of the new mobility on economic models for businesses and governments, social services, economic development, and personal identity