Botnets and Mass Spammers Attack Youtube with Video Spam

Up to 24 hours of video continues to be uploaded every minute, according to Youtube, when most of it comes from mass spammers and most recently, Russian botnets. They are spamming with videos, inbox messages, and fake websites claiming to be from Youtube, that are survey sites (Type in the Youtube.com web address wrong, and you'll wind up on those fake survey sites).

The most recent inbox/PM spam are from spammers claiming that you can get subscribers from sites like sub4sub.com and earnsubscribers.com, both are scam sites. Youtube will terminate accounts that send these messages if you click the Report Spam link.

The inbox system is supposed to be revamped soon, according to the Youtube web team, it's hard to say whether it will including methods to deal with spam messages, as they most recently started a forum feedback topic on the matter.

Youtubers reported on Youtube's help forum that mass spamming occurred on Youtube involving Russian botnets, claiming they were posting about 5000 spamvertised/pornographic content in a 24-hour period. Sounds pretty huge, but it's actually part of a spam attack by criminals.

Kaspersky Labs predicted that Youtube was going to be used as a haven for spammers, and their predictions were right.

Videos can flagged for spam, but at the rate the spammers are going, it can be tiresome and endless. They have been at it since 2009. But don't be discouraged; if you see spam, use the Flag button found on every video to speak out. Video that are posted to Youtube are not pre-screened, so it's up to the user community base to flag such content up for Youtube to review.

A few days ago, spammers have been stealing videos and uploading them as cover for promoting a link in the video description for a free video game console or handheld, such as the Nintendo 3DS. And the spammers that are doing this are actively abusing other people's resources for their spam-related activities.

There were also cases of video spam with sexually suggestive content, along with stuffed keywords in the video title and description, which has been happening for a few years now. Also, spammers are taking advantage of popular videos and news stories to upload spam with links claiming you can go to a site to see the entire video.

Also, spam accounts on Youtube are using feedback systems, to know if a video is taken down, so that they can upload more spam in their place. Try not to be surprised when this happens.

Most of this spam comes from countries like India, Pakistan, Malaysia, and other Far Eastern nations, and perhaps Russia, with the most recent botnet attack possibly originated from, most of whom, may not have laws and regulations against Internet spam.

So what can we do to go after these spammers on Youtube? We can go on a scavenger hunt and flag videos for spam if you're against Internet spam and the criminals that are doing this, or if you're part of an anti-spam group, or we can contact Youtube and let them know about the latest tactics these spammers are using and come up with measures such as to slow down their uploads, or freeze their accounts suspected of spam-related activity.

Source video

South Korea Raids Google Offices in Seoul Again

Over a year ago, South Korea raid Google's offices over the issue of data collection on its users, now it's raided again over the issue of Google decreasing access to rival search engines on Android. See video below for more. (from Newsy.com)

Telling a lie on the Net a felony offense?

Truth may be a total defense on the web, but what about telling a lie? The White House is looking to amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 to include lying on the Net to further combat fraud and hacking. Perhaps a good way to extract the truth out of hackers and fraudsters? See video from RT America below on this.

Gmail account security in Iran was at risk

Heads up for Iranians who use Gmail: A Dutch company that validates the authenticity of websites could have breached the security of Gmail accounts used by Iranians. Google internal system were not affected, though. See source link on ways to secure your account.

Source: Official Gmail Blog: Gmail account security in Iran

Some Chinese Internet users can surf freely thanks fo IPv6, for now

A new web technology being championed by China is allowing a short-term gap in its so-called “Great Firewall,” which blocks Chinese Internet users from sites blacklisted by the government in Beijing. Experts say how the gap is closed could have ramifications for the entire world.

The gap exists because of IPv6, the next generation of Internet protocol designed to replace IPv4. The change is needed because the old system is about to run out of IP addresses, the combination of numbers that identify your computer over the Internet. IPv6 will offer a nearly infinite number of IP addresses.

Source: Some Chinese Surf Freely, for Now | VOA News

Seems that there's a flaw in the slaw in China's Great Firewall, as it may not be able to handle IPv6, which will provide infinite numbers of IP addresses. Those who claimed to use IPv6 to get around China's censorship firewall were successful, such as users inside or outside China.

Chinese Regime Calls for Crackdown on Internet Rumors

China's state news agency has called for a crackdown on what it calls the spread of toxic rumors over the Internet.

Xinhua published an article Tuesday in Chinese-only criticizing the increasingly popular social networking sites for spreading rumors like cancer, and urged preventive action.

Chinese authorities use sophisticated software to try to control what is said on the Internet. The government has become increasingly nervous about the Arab uprisings, which have gathered huge support through online networking. Officials fear they may inspire unrest in China.

Source: China Calls for Crackdown on Internet Rumors | VOA News

China's growing even more nervous and disturbed, the Chinese regime is telling its ISPs to tighten control on Internet content. Goes to show that the Chinese regime doesn't like it when the Internet is being used against them, in response to the Arab Spring. Rumors or not, China's not taking any chances here.

How Google Search Handles Piracy Today

Last winter, Google discussed its efforts to improve how copyright works online. They outlined four changes that they’d be implementing, including:

1. Acting on reliable copyright takedown requests within 24 hours
2. Preventing terms that are closely associated with piracy from appearing in autocomplete
3. Improving AdSense anti-piracy review
4. Experimenting to make authorized preview content more readily accessible in search results.

Today, Google discussed some of the strides it has made with these initiatives in a post on its Public Policy blog.

The company says it has built tools for making it easier for rightsholders to submit DMCA takedown requests for Google products, starting with Blogger and Web Search and that they’re being used by over a dozen content industry partners successfully, accounting for over 75% of all URLs submitted in DMCA takedowns for web search. Google also started filtering terms associated with infringement from Autocomplete.

Source: Google Gives Update on How It’s Combating Piracy | WebProNews

Well, the war on Internet piracy is now waging on search engines like Google, thanks to the entertainment industry. Just like with Internet pornography, piracy-related search terms will not be shown on Google Search's autocomplete (list of search terms that appear when typing in a keyword.) Also on Google Adwords and Adsense, sites promoting pirated materials will likely be rejected from Google Ad circulation, which has happened over a year ago with Youtube's Promoted Videos program. Plus if piracy websites are shown in Google search results, they're likely to be de-listed thanks to numerous DMCA requests Google recieves almost everyday. With that, these companies are still going up against the Web right now.