New Internet marketing tool combines both leading annoyances

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari () OLTECO com>
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 15:21:41 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: New Internet marketing tool combines both leading annoyances

    The first time I encountered one of these Windows Messenger
    pop-ups on a Win2K system recently, I immediately checked
    and discovered Messenger service active. Disabling Messenger
    stops this somewhat clever but annoying exploit using port 135...

Posted on Fri, Oct. 18, 2002
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4316557.htm
New Internet marketing tool combines both leading
annoyances

NEW YORK (AP) - As if junk e-mail and pop-up ads weren't annoying
enough on their own, now there's a combination.

A developer of bulk-mail software has figured out how to blast
computers with pop-up spam over the Internet through a messaging
function on many Windows operating systems. The function was designed
for use by computer network technicians to, for instance, warn people
on their systems of a planned shutdown.

The pop-up messages appear on recipients' computers in separate windows,
similar to pop-up ads that appear when a user goes to a Web site.

But there's a difference: Anyone can send the messages, and there's
no need for the user to have an Internet browser open.

Gary Flynn, a security engineer at James Madison University, where several
messages were received, calls the technique worse than e-mail spam.

``This pops up on the screen,'' he said. ``It's almost like somebody
barging in your office and interrupting you.''

Zoltan Kovacs, founder of the company that makes the new software,
officially condemns spamming but acknowledges that some customers buy
it for that.

``If some people use it for bad things, they should take their own
responsibility, but it's their own problem,'' Kovacs said.

He said his tool can help system administrators send alert notices to
network users more efficiently.

However, his Web site touts the software's advertising and marketing
potential. He said he has sold more than 200 copies since his $699.99
product was released two months ago.

The new spam technique, first reported by Wired.com, represents the latest
attempt to bypass the increasingly sophisticated e-mail spam filters
employed by leading Internet service providers and individual users.

It also circumvents state and other laws designed to curb junk
e-mail, Kovacs said.

Kovacs said his company is based in Romania. A demo copy of the software
contains a Plantation, Fla., address, but he said that was old.
Kovacs refused to discuss his location, other than saying he is in
the United States.

In recent weeks, Internet users have reported receiving pop-up
messages such as one touting university degrees without classes or
books.

Security firm myNetWatchman.com, which monitors some 1,400 computer
networks worldwide, also detected unsolicited connection attempts of the
pattern used by Kovacs' software, DirectAdvertiser.

Unlike e-mail, recipients can only receive messages if their
computers are on while the messages are being sent. And the software
can only send text -- not images or clickable links as are found in
pop-up ads and e-mail.

The software itself does not hack into computers. Rather, it uses the
Messenger service that comes turned on by default with many Windows
systems, including 2000 and XP, said Philip Sloss, an independent security
consultant in San Diego.

Messenger, not to be confused with the MSN Messenger instant-messaging
program, is meant for system administrators to broadcast service notices.

But if a system administrator can use Messenger, so can someone connecting
through the Internet from the outside, said Lawrence Baldwin, president of
myNetWatchman.com.

Flynn worries that hackers might one day use the technique to
persuade users to change their passwords or otherwise compromise
security.

The DirectAdvertiser software finds Messenger-enabled computers by running
through ranges of numeric Internet Protocol addresses used to identify
computers on the Internet.

The software, however, may not work if a computer is behind a
security firewall or if multiple computers share the same numeric
address using
a traffic router.

The pop-up messages it sends are much more difficult to trace -- and thus
block -- than e-mail spam, Baldwin said. The software's Web site says the
messages are ``completely anonymous and virtually untraceable,'' a claim
Baldwin confirms.

Users can disable Messenger through their operating system's control
panel, although doing so could interfere with some anti-virus and
other applications that send such messages. Kovacs even provides
instructions
on his Web site.
    <[ http://www.directadvertiser.com/optout.html ]>

Kovacs claims his software can send more than 10,000 messages an hour
through high-speed cable modems and DSL connections. Using a more
expensive T1 line increases the capacity threefold.

Kovacs, who refused to disclose his customers, said he has heard from
people wishing to buy the software and well as those wishing to turn
off the Messenger functions. Every few days, Kovacs said, an irate
caller
addresses him ``using bad words.''

``We just hang up the phone,'' he said.

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