Inside the Spam Cartel: Trade Secrets from the Dark Side [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Spammer-X (Author), Jeffrey Posluns (Editor) (Author), Stu Sjouwerman (Foreword) (Author)
Key Phrases: see referrers, filter evasion, connection filter rule, Spam Assassin, United States, Trade Secrets Revealed (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
You May Hate Spammer-X, But Can You Afford to Ignore Him?

Learn How Spammers Stay One Step Ahead of the Law

A Methodical and Technically Explicit Exposé That Travels Beyond Configuring Filters and Cleaning Mailboxes

A "Must Read" for Security Professionals, Law Enforcement, Hackers, and Programmers

"You may not know me, but it's likely you have received at least one of the 10 to 20 million spam e-mails I send each week. This is my story, my chance to tell the world how and why I became one of the world's most prolific spammers. I'll take you inside the Spam Cartel, showing real examples and techniques used to send spam, including how e-mail addresses are obtained, spam filters are evaded, and money is made. I want you to understand how a spammer works and why I choose to work in one of the most hated industries in the world. "---Spammer X

?          Understand SPAM as an Industry See why SPAM has become a preferred means of mass market advertising for many companies.

?        Learn How Spammers "Own" Proxy Servers and SMTP Relays Scan networks to identify security flaws for exploitation.

?          Bait the Hook with Phishing and Scam SPAM See how promises of a Nigerian treasury surplus or an uncollected lottery winning attract the unsuspecting.

?          Discover the Top Spoofed Spam Domains You may be surprised to know that the most commonly abused domains include Microsoft, Yahoo, and Ameritech locations.

?          Employ SPAM Forensics Track a spammer's activities and build a fingerprint from the spam they send and the techniques they use.

?          Learn the Rules of the CAN-SPAM Act Find the teeth in the law to help protect both corporate and national security interests.

?          Create Messages that Get Read Only the best spammers have mastered the art of making the reader want to buy an otherwise useless product.

?          Learn how VoIP Spam May Be the Next Big Thing VoIP creates an IP address for your phone number, meaning most of the spammer's e-mail techniques can be readily ported.

Your Solutions Membership Gives You Access to:

Comprehensive FAQ page that consolidates all of the key points of this book into an easy to search web page

"From the Author" Forum where the authors post timely updates and links to related sites

The complete code listings from the book

These downloadable e-booklets:

WarDriving: Learning to WarDrive

Hacking the Code: Managing Sessions

Cyber Adversary Characterization: Introduction to Auditing the Hacker Mind

Wireless Hacking: Building Outdoor Enclosures and Antenna Masts

About the Author
Jeffrey Posluns, CISM, CISA, ISSAP, ISSMP, CISSP, SSCP, has over a decade of experience specializing in the management of technology companies, with technical expertise in the analysis of hacker tools and techniques, intrusion detection, forensics, and incident response. Having founded, co-founded, and invested in several e-commerce and security initiatives, he has served in the capacity of president, CTO, and CIO. Jeffrey speaks at seminars and conferences worldwide for corporate, law enforcement, financial, and legal audiences, where his sessions are most often described as educational and thought provoking. As one of the industry's leading security professionals, he is a dynamic, highly sought business and technology speaker, an author of multiple books and white papers, and a recognized expert in identifying trends, solving business problems, and resolving security issues for many of the nation's leading companies.

He has authored, edited, and contributed to a number of books from Syngress Publishing including Snort 2.0 Intrusion Detection (ISBN: 1-931836-74-4), the SSCP Certification Study Guide & DVD Training System (ISBN: 1-931836-80-9), and Hack Proofing Your Wireless Networks (ISBN: 1-928994-59-8), as well as having written and contributed to other technological books, white papers, financial and security-related software and toolkits. Jeffrey is also a trainer for the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) curriculum.

Stu Sjouwerman is the President of Sunbelt Software and the publisher of W2Knews, the world's first and largest e-newsletter specifically focused on NT/W2K system managers. W2Knews has 300,000 weekly readers who have the job of keeping  NT/W2K up and running in a production environments. Sunbelt has made it into the INC. 500 Magazine list of fastest-growing, privately-held companies. By 2003, Sunbelt had total revenues of $30M and Stu had co-authored three books on Windows system administration, including the bestselling Windows NT Power Toolkit. Sunbelt's most popular product is iHateSpam, which is the best selling anti-spam solution for Microsoft Exchange sites with 5,000 installations, and 250,000 end users using iHateSpam on their personal computers. Stu lives in Bellair, FL.

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Syngress; 1 edition (November 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932266860
• ISBN-13: 978-1932266863
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #667,753 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely fascinating -- one of the best books of 2004, December 11, 2004

By	Richard Bejtlich "TaoSecurity.com" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Reading 'Inside the Spam Cartel' (ITSC) is like watching a racing car crash; you're horrified to see it happen, but you can't take your eyes off it. ITSC exposes spam from the point of view of the 'enemy' -- a spammer who claims 'you need to be ruthless in this industry if you want to make any money at it' (p. 132). This book is an absolute must-read for anyone trying to combat spam, especially policy makers who think passing laws with clever names makes any difference.

ITSC's value derives from the authenticity of the author(s). I suspect that a lead author may have received assistance from contributors, all of whom are spammers, or in one case, a 'reformed-spammer-cum-system-administrator' (p. 320). Some parts of the book hint at a British author (see references to 'parliament' and 'headmasters') while others hint at a New Yorker (see stories of conversing with passers-by in the city, or buying expensive goods on 5th Avenue). ITSC pulls no punches and gives enough detail to make any semi-technically savvy user a future spammer. Just as the Anonymous author of 1997's 'Maximum Security' brought 'hacking' to the masses, Spammer-X brings spamming to a world that only sees spam in in-boxes, not the method by which spam is sent.

I found ITSC's discussion of tools and techniques enlightening. Readers will learn about programs to generate and transmit spam. They are advisted to host images at overseas 'bullet-proof' Web hosts. Spammer-X explains how to manipulate message content for maximum effect, how to receive referrals fees from sites selling products, and how to collect payment via sometimes shady means. The spam case studies in ch 11 were excellent, and the charts showing 'revenue vs. products sold' in ch 6 showed the author(s) treat spamming as a true business.

The only flaws I found involved rough copy-editing and reporting a bogus story involving RFID chips in US $20 bills. I was disturbed to hear spammers defend their need to break into servers to steal/trade/sell email addresses. I was also appalled by their practice of turning innocent home users into bot net participants and spam proxy servers as part of 'the perfect spam' (ch 11). Spamming of that sort is not an 'art form' which transmits 'masterpieces' (p. 369); it is the end result of illegal and destructive intrusions that prey on weaker elements of digital society. Marketing is fine; unauthorized access is wrong.

The author(s) barely mention the best way to mitigate spam (probably because it will work): changing the financial equation. Once users charge senders before accepting their mail (and then refunding legitimate senders), spamming will be too expensive. Until that micro-payment infrastructure is in place, I recommend we all read and heed Spammer-X's fascinating work.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From inside the mind of a spammer..., December 5, 2004

By	Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In order to fight an enemy, you have to understand him. And in order to fight spam, you need to understand the mindset of the spammer. To do that, pick up a copy of Inside the SPAM Cartel by Spammer-X (Syngress).

Chapter List: Inside the Head of a Spammer; How Spam Works; Sending Spam; Your E-mail: Digital Gold; Creating the Message and Getting It Read; Spam Filters: Detection and Evasion; Spam Filters: Advanced Detection and Evasion; Phishing and Scam Spam; Spam and the Law; Analyzing Spam; The Real Cost of Spam; Statistics of Spam; The Future of Spam; FAQs of Spam; Closing Comments; Combating Spam with Exchange Server and Outlook; Index

This book is written from the first-person perspective of a spammer, and goes into great detail about the mentality and technology of spamming. Whether Spammer-X is a real person or not is irrelevant. The information is excellent and will definitely aid anyone who is responsible for combatting spam in an organization. He covers everything from how spammers make their money, how they hide their tracks, what technology they use to send out the mailings, and what techniques are used to prevent the money from being tracked. If you're trying to figure out where a spam email originates from, you'll learn how to read the headers to deduce what's real and what's not. It's definitely interesting to read about the whole spam process from a "spammer friendly" perspective. The argument could be made that this is a handbook on how to become a spammer, but it's also important to know what the "enemy" is up against. I think it has much more value in that way.

My only complaint with the book is that the editing process of the writing must have broken down somewhere here. There are a number of typos and grammatical errors in the book. If the book wasn't so interesting and useful, I'd probably mark it down a notch for that. But the value of the material can't be overlooked, so I'll award it the top rating on Amazon... 5 stars.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking., January 10, 2005

By	Stubb "Stubby." (New York) - See all my reviews

I hate spam and when i was given this book for xmas i was shy about reading it. However Spammer X does more than rabble on about the woes of spam, or how much money he makes from it.
I really could not put the book down, i finished it and wanted more. The spam cartel is simply amazing and it has opened my eyes to alot of filter evasion methods used to defeat my spam filters!

I also read (and reviewed) spam kings, but i felt very empty when i finished the book and really didnt want anymore.. Spam Cartel nicely filled that gap :)

I was very curious if 'spammer x' was a real person or not and did a bit of google searching.. And i think he is a real person, as the author did a radio interview with geekspeak.org late last year. Sounds very, very much like a real person.
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