Date: 22-Jun-2007
Yesterday there was a huge "pump & dump" outbreak. Instead of inserting stock symbols in an image, the spam contained a PDF of a spoofed investment newsletter. complete with letterhead, bullet points, target prices, etc. Very sophisticated. We are calling it the "PDF Spam Outbreak".

The PDF Spam Outbreak shows that spammers are constantly adjusting techniques. The best anti-spam solution is one with the ability to quickly react to these new tricks. This outbreak is the perfect opportunity to show why Logix Secure Relay is the only choice to protect against tomorrow.s threats!

Size of Outbreak:

• 5B messages sent in a 24 hour period. Represented 9% of spam volumes, and was one of the largest outbreaks of 2007.
• Used 75K bot networks, mostly located in the US, Germany and Spain. Recipients were heavily focused in Europe.

Unique Characteristics:

• More so than the volume, outbreak was unique because of payload, a sophisticated looking PDF file designed to look exactly like an investment newsletter.
• This is the first major instance of a PDF being used for spam.
• New file type made it more difficult for first generation solutions to analyze, while simultaneously making recipients more likely to believe its authenticity.

Logix Secure Relay Talking Points:

• Defending against new spam attacks is predicated on the ability to see the spam first, quickly write accurate rules to protect against the outbreak; and have world-class proactive reputation based protection.
• See the spam first: With SenderBase, we see 25% of the world.s email. We see attacks sooner than anyone else. It's like having a 10 yard start in a 100 yard dash.
• Write rules more quickly: other anti-spam vendors rely on human generated rules that take time to write.
• Proactive protection: most spam is sent by zombie PCs. SBRS, the first and most sophisticated reputation based service blocks spam before it is even sent by identifying suspicious senders.
• Accuracy: Logix Secure Relay achieves world-class accuracy by using its custom build Context Adaptive Scanning Engine (CASE) to analyze messages on over 200 different parameters including structure, content, sender reputation, URL reputation and patent-pending Multidimensional Pattern Recognition image analysis technology.