Saturday, July 17, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Q2'10 spam & virus trends from Postini

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 06:09 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Q2'10 spam & virus trends from Postini

Editor's note: The spam data cited in this post is drawn from the network of Google email security and archiving services, powered by Postini, which processes more than 3 billion email messages per day in the course of providing email security to more than 50,000 businesses and 18 million business users.

Spam and virus volumes this year have continued their upward trend. Q2'10 has seen a sharp 16% increase in spam volume over Q1'10. Virus traffic has moderately increased 3% increase this quarter, however Q2'10 virus was 260% higher than Q2'09. These trends tell us that the spammers are still extremely active, and their botnets produce high levels of spam and virus traffic.

By the by numbers
Spam volume shot up 16% from Q1'10 to Q2'10. Overall, however spam levels are down 15% from Q2'09.

Virus volume grew quickly at the beginning of the quarter, shooting up 90% from March to April, but then quickly dropped off. We saw only a modest 3% uptick from Q1'10 to Q2'10 at the aggregate level. Compared to Q2'09, this represents a 260% increase.

One interesting trend we noticed is size of individual spam messages rising 35% from Q1'10. This points to the fact that spammers are sending more image-based spam, as well as viruses as attachments.

New methods of attack
We have also seen a recent surge in obfuscated (hidden) JavaScript attacks. These messages are a hybrid between virus and spam messages. The messages are designed to look like Non Delivery Report (NDR) messages, which are legitimate messages, however they contained hidden JavaScript which in some cases tried to do things the user may not have been aware of.

In some cases, the message may have forwarded the user's browser to a pharma site or tried to download something unexpected, which is more virus-like. Since the messages contained classic JavaScript which generates code, the messages could change themselves and take multiple forms, making them challenging to identify.

Fortunately, our spam traps were receiving these messages early, providing our engineers with advanced warning which allowed us to write manual filters and escalate to our anti-virus partners quickly. In addition to this, we updated our Postini Anti-Spam Engine (PASE) to recognize the obfuscated JavaScript and capture the messages based on the underlying code to ensure accuracy.

The classics
Although they've added a few new tricks to their bag, spammers continue to exploit tried and true techniques, including:

• False Social Networking Messages
Social networks continue to be one of the most frequently spoofed domains for the purpose of spreading phishing scams and virus downloaders. These messages do not actually come from social networks but look similar to legitimate social networks messages. Such messages often contain links to external websites which contain malicious content and/or attempt to harvest user login information. The Postini Anti-Spam Engine is very good at detecting such messages, but users should always be cautious when handling messages from popular social networking sites.

• Current events
As always, spammers continue to spoof major news stories, and this quarter, we saw an increase in spam involving the World Cup. Here is one example of a virus downloader that our spam filters caught:

• Shipping scams
The shipping scam is a favorite of spammers. This quarter we saw a more wide spread outbreak of messages claiming to be from major shipping companies because spammers get a higher success rate with these type of scams. The subject for the message made it look like an invoice and the message body contained random text such as news stories that did not look particularly "spammy." Each message had an attached zip file that presumably was intended to contain some sort of virus payload; however, the data was corrupt and did not pose any actual threat.

Stay safe from phishing scams
With the global economy continuing to lag, we have seen a continued upswing in "friend-in-need" phishing attempts, where hackers break into the email account of unsuspecting users and then hand-type a message to send to the victim's email contacts.

The most common message told a story of the person being mugged while traveling abroad and requesting money to be sent to them in order to help them get home. The hacker is preying on the generosity of the victims friends in the hopes that one or more of them will send money to them. These messages can be difficult for spam filters to identify since they are hand typed and not sent in bulk. It goes without saying, but be weary of emails requesting money – regardless of the sender.

In response to these outbreaks, our engineers have released several updated filters to combat new spam waves.

Conclusion
Spam volume fluctuates in the short term, but overall, for the last 3 quarters spam volume has been relatively flat. Spammers continue to exploit techniques that have proven results, but as we have seen with obfuscated JavaScript attacks spammers are always experimenting with new techniques to stay ahead of security measures. Google Postini Services customers are protected from the brunt of these increases in spam volume.

For more information on how Google's security and archiving services can help your business stay safe and compliant, please visit www.google.com/postini.

Posted by Adam Hollman and Gopal Shah, Google Postini Services team

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/07/q210-spam-virus-trends-from-postini.html

[G] Deeper understanding with Metaweb

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 05:26 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Deeper understanding with Metaweb

Over time we've improved search by deepening our understanding of queries and web pages. The web isn't merely words—it's information about things in the real world, and understanding the relationships between real-world entities can help us deliver relevant information more quickly. Today, we've acquired Metaweb, a company that maintains an open database of things in the world. Working together we want to improve search and make the web richer and more meaningful for everyone.

With efforts like rich snippets and the search answers feature, we're just beginning to apply our understanding of the web to make search better. Type [barack obama birthday] in the search box and see the answer right at the top of the page. Or search for [events in San Jose] and see a list of specific events and dates. We can offer this kind of experience because we understand facts about real people and real events out in the world. But what about [colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000] or [actors over 40 who have won at least one oscar]? These are hard questions, and we've acquired Metaweb because we believe working together we'll be able to provide better answers.

In addition to our ideas for search, we're also excited about the possibilities for Freebase, Metaweb's free and open database of over 12 million things, including movies, books, TV shows, celebrities, locations, companies and more. Google and Metaweb plan to maintain Freebase as a free and open database for the world. Better yet, we plan to contribute to and further develop Freebase and would be delighted if other web companies use and contribute to the data. We believe that by improving Freebase, it will be a tremendous resource to make the web richer for everyone. And to the extent the web becomes a better place, this is good for webmasters and good for users.

We look forward to working with the talented Metaweb team. We'll be sure to share details on our progress in the coming months. In the meantime, if you're interested to learn more about Metaweb's technology, we encourage you to check out a helpful video they've posted on their blog.

Posted by Jack Menzel, Director of Product Management
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/deeper-understanding-with-metaweb.html

[G] Google Apps highlights – 7/16/2010

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 05:26 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Google Apps highlights – 7/16/2010

This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label "Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

Over the last couple of weeks we rolled out some nice updates in Gmail, improved on Google forms, added new mobile device security features and celebrated many new applications recently added to the Apps Marketplace. Enjoy!

Rich text signatures in Gmail
You've been able to add plain text signatures to your messages in Gmail for some time, but last Thursday we stepped it up a notch by adding rich text signatures, one of our most requested features. Now you can create signatures with different fonts, font sizes, font colors, links and images. The feature also supports different signatures for different custom "From:" addresses that you've configured. Head over to the "Settings" page in Gmail to get started.


HTML5 features in Gmail on Safari
Gmail has recently added some new interactive features, like drag-and-drop attachments and images, and new windows that "outlive" your original Gmail window. These features are possible thanks to HTML5, but until this week, Safari users have been left out. All of that changed on Monday, and users of Safari 5 can now enjoy these helpful HTML5 features, too.

Simpler page navigation in Google forms
With Google forms (part of Google Docs), you can quickly create and send surveys to your contacts or publish surveys on the web. We started out offering simple one-page forms, but last week we made some big improvements to our logic branching capabilities. Now you can easily create multi-page surveys that adapt depending on how people answer your questions. Try it out for yourself in the form-based choose your own adventure game that we built.


More security controls for mobile devices
Businesses and schools using Google Apps often want the ability to centrally manage mobile devices that their users connect to Google Apps, and on Tuesday we rolled out several new device management capabilities. Organizations can now require devices to use data encryption, auto-wipe devices after a certain number of failed password attempts, require device passwords to be changed periodically and more.


Apps Tuesday: 10 new additions to the Apps Marketplace
Some technology companies burden IT departments with software patches and fixes every month, but our cloud computing approach means that customers get improvements automatically with Google Apps. In addition to all the new features built by Google, this month we added 10 new applications from third-party software companies to the Apps Marketplace. Third-party apps integrate seamlessly with Google Apps and can be activated by administrators with just a couple clicks.

Who's gone Google?
More and more organizations are getting with the times and switching to Google Apps. Today we welcome Vektrex, Rypple, XAOP, Limbach Facility Services, Riley Chartered Accounts and tens of thousands of other businesses worldwide that have moved to the cloud with Google since my last update here.

More universities are preparing to reopen their doors in the fall with new campus technology tools, too. We're excited to have University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, Universitat de Girona in Spain and The College of St. Scholastica join us!

I hope you're making the most of these new features, whether you're using Google Apps with friends, family, coworkers or classmates. For more details and updates from the Apps team, head on over to the Google Apps Blog.

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/google-apps-highlights-7162010.html

[G] A Shout Out About Annotations

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 12:39 PM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: A Shout Out About Annotations

A few months ago at the Google I/O conference, we were approached by Zach Steindler, a co-founder at Olark (a way to gain customer insight and sale better through live chat) who was raving about Google Analytics Annotations. He had such a great business case, we decided to let him rave here. Enjoy, and thanks Zach.

Making good business decisions is hard, and making the right one is even harder. At Google I/O I realized many people use Google Analytics but they aren't familiar with the recent annotations feature that has helped us make smarter business decisions.

When we look at our Google Analytics, we don't really care if our numbers are up or down; what we really want to know is why. This means asking a lot of questions, particularly questions about what happened when, like:

"How long has that ad trial been running?"
"When did we release that update to the website?"
"What happened after that last blog post?"

To answer these questions I might have to dig through e-mails, commit logs, and probably end up pestering my teammates for an hour while we try to figure out what happened when. But this is serious stuff; if our numbers went up 50% in a week, you better believe we want to know why so we can do more of it!

Annotations are exactly the tool we needed to answer these questions without having to pester teammates and dig through the past. If you don't know, basically, they allow you to add notes of what events happened on a particular day. These notes are then visible for the different views in Google Analytics, so you can see how the events impacted your page views, goals, or whatever else you are tracking.

You can annotate whatever you want; we annotate things like external publicity, major updates to our site, blog posts, even service issues, to see how all these events are impacting our business.

We're big believers in the power of open data; everyone on the team has access to Google Analytics and can contribute events they think are important. This has been incredibly useful for us. Now I can answer many why questions for myself, just by looking at the data other people have contributed. When I do need to interrupt the team, it's because I have big-picture questions, not because I need them to help me track down dates. Also, you start to notice a rhythm of events, and if that rhythm changes, how it impacts your business. As a bonus, now we have this cool timeline of events the team thought was important, which is useful for retrospectives and end-of-period reports.

We're far from being able to make perfect decisions with perfect knowledge, but annotations have made it much easier to answer the why questions so we can make good business decisions.

Posted by Patricia Boswell, Google Analytics Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/07/shout-out-about-annotations.html
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