Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the publication of its May 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report. This month’s analysis reveals that, for the first time ever and as predicted by MessageLabs Intelligence in its Annual Security Predictions for 2011, spammers are establishing their own their own fake URL-shortening services to perform URL redirection. This new spamming activity has contributed to this month’s increase in spam by 2.9 percentage points, a rise that was also expected following the Rustock botnet takedown in March.
Under this scheme, shortened links created on these fake URL-shortening sites are not included directly in spam messages. Instead, the spam emails contain shortened URLs created on legitimate URL-shortening sites. These shortened URLs lead to a shortened-URL on the spammer’s fake URL-shortening Web site, which in turn redirects to the spammer’s own Web site
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Spammers establish their own fake URL-shortening services for the first time ever, contributing to rising spam rates
