Starting early this morning, a rash of fake Kindle ebook orders hit the Internet. Sent out as part of the Sakura exploit malware, the email is designed to alarm the recipients into thinking that their Amazon accounts have been charged outrageous amounts for ebooks that they didn’t order, going to addresses they don’t recognize (including “Gahanna, United States”), but the links to “your account” actually take the unsuspecting recipients to malicious sites where the Sakura exploit will infect their computer, adding it to their botnet. The subject of the email is usually “Your Amazon.com Kindle e-book order confirmation” or “Your Amazon.com Kindle e-book order receipt” and appears to come from digital-no-reply@amazon.com “Thanks for your order (your email address)!” the email starts out, going on to say “Did you know you can view and edit your orders online, 24 hours a day? Visit Your Account.” Don’t fall for it!

Akamai Technologies released its current “State of the Internet” report this week and, according to Akamai, there has been a 2000% increase in DDOS attacks over the past 3 years, with nearly half of all attacks coming from Asia. According to Akamai’s State of the Net report, Indonesia has leapfrogged over China and Taiwan to take its place as the top source of these attacks, with Taiwan and China coming in second and third. Akamai also rated, among other things, the fastest cities in the world, meaning which cities have the fastest average Internet connection speed.

If you get an email supposedly from Facebook (top addresses have been change@facebook.com and support@facebook.com) , asking for a “Facebook Password Reset Confirmation”, don’t panic thinking that someone has reset your Facebook password (that’s exactly what the bad guys want you to do), and whatever you do don’t download or open the attachment that is in the email! The attachment, named either facebook_password_139.zip or facebook_password_239.zip, is actually a Windows malware file, facebook_password_139.exe or facebook_password_239.exe.

Project Honey Pot has just announced over one billion served – one billion pieces of spam served to Project Honey Pot that is – and with that milestone they have released their analysis of global spam trends and patterns, and it’s very interesting.

Ever wonder why there is so much spam for Viagra? Ever wonder “Who would ever buy this stuff?” Well, while the specific details of the “who” aren’t available, there are enough of them buying it to make spamming about Viagra and other similar meds very financially rewarding.

Authorities in the U.S. and New Zealand have coordinated to take down big time male enhancement and supplement spammers Lance Atkinson and Jody Smith, and their Target Pharmacy, Canadian Healthcare, Inet Ventures, Tango Pay, Click Fusion, and TwoBucks Trading spam operations. Lance Atkinson and Jody Smith were the muscle behind what Spamhaus has called “the biggest spam gang in the world,” and they recruited countless affiliates to send their spam through a spam affiliate program called Affking.

Those Valentine greetings that you are receiving, often in the guise of free e Valentine cards, may be sending you more than “Happy Valentines Day” greetings. In fact, they may contain a virus or two. Phony trojan Valentine greetings include subjects such as “Sent with Love”, “Our Love Will Last”, “Our Love is Strong”, “You’re the One”, “A Toast My Love”, “Falling In Love with You”, “Special Romance”, “Your Love Has Opened”, “Heavenly Love”, and “You’re In My Thoughts”.

Mega spammer Alan Ralsky has been indicted under Federal anti-spamming law, along with ten other spammers involved in Ralsky’s operation, including Ralsky’s own son-in-law, Scott Bradley (“Oh dad, how could you?) Other spammers charged include Judy Devenow, also of Michigan; James Bragg, of Arizona; California spammers John Brown, William Neil, Anki Neil, James Fite, Francis Tribble; and How Wai John Hui, of Vancouver, Canada and Hong Kong, and Peter Severa of Russia.

London’s The Times newspaper is reporting that a Pentagon report indicates that China has amassed an enormous, well-armed “cyber army” that is focussed on taking out the United States computer infrastructure, along with that of other “enemies”, such as the UK and South Korea.

A new wave of spam hitting everybody’s inboxes takes the form of a welcome to one or another website and service, complete with temporary login information and a link to ‘change your temporary password’. The subjects all say some variant of “Login Information”, “Member Details”, “Registration Details” or, even, occasionally, “Internet Techincal Support” (sic). What they also all have in common is that if you click on that link, your computer will have just become a botnet pimp’s newest bitch.

Secure your computer, and take back the net! At least one in every three PCs has been compromised and is being used by spammers and phishers as part of their zombie computer “botnets”. And the owners don’t even know! Secure your computer for free. We tell you how!

Blue Security and their controversial Blue Frog program suffered a fatal blow when Blue Security CEO Eran Reshef concluded that the cost to the Internet of their ongoing battle with spammer PharmaMaster, and possibly others, was too high.

A mock trial, in which ISPs were sued for damage done by a zombie network to a few fictitious companies’ business and financial interests, found that a jury of IT professionals overwhelmingly held the opinion that the ISPs were not responsible for the damage flowing from their networks via the…

Not content to just do its normal wormly dirty work, a new variation on the infamous Bagle worm, Win32.Glieder, brings with it two companion Trojans, Win32.Fantibag and Win32.Mitglieder (literally, in German, “with Glieder”). Said Chris Thomas, a security architect with Computer Associates, “We’ve seen blended threats before where a virus…