Chinese Pharmacy Spam and Our Monthly Spam Report

The recent onslaught of “Chinese pharmacy” spam and the DDoS attacks that took down Twitter, Facebook, and others have caused a frenzy of speculation about the Chinese government’s involvement in spam generation and acts of cyberterrorism. McAfee’s September 2009 Spam Report debunks these rumors and gets to the root of the cause.

The report reveals the truth behind the “Chinese pharmacy” spam:

”¢ “Chinese pharmacy” spam appears to be the result of a need for regional pharmaceutical companies to offload excess drugs internationally, as selling excess drugs inside the country violates Chinese law. We just don’t believe this month’s onslaught is a sinister government plot.
”¢ Spam originating from China can often make up between 60 percent and 65 percent of today’s global email volume
”¢ “Chinese newsletter” spam emails were the leading type of pharmaceutical spam, with a total of 52,428 emails that contained 1,235 unique URL domains in a single day
Ӣ If excess drugs in China cannot be sold into the legal market due to Chinese law, then they will continue to be sold on the black market

Furthermore, the report uncovers findings that have surfaced since the August 6 DDoS attacks:

Ӣ The August 6 spam campaign, launched in conjunction with the DDoS attacks, was not solely responsible for the downfall of the social networking sites and, in fact, was likely a mere afterthought of the attacker
Ӣ The August 6 DDoS and spam attack was intended to target a pro-Georgian blogger, and was likely part of an intimidation campaign in retaliation for his political blogs
Ӣ Brazil, Turkey, and India were among the top three domains from which infected machines spread the August 6 spam campaign in conjunction with the DDoS attack

Check out the full report here.