Record spam floods Bluewin and Bluemail customers
Anyone with an email account at Bluewin or Bluemail has been inundated with a flood of promotional emails since Sunday evening. According to the operator, Swisscom, this is a nationwide outage.
"We are currently experiencing an unusually high wave of spam," said spokeswoman Annina Merk on Tuesday at the request of the SDA news agency. The number of unsolicited emails is four to five times higher than usual. "There are millions of emails," said the spokeswoman. Bluewin and Bluemail customers are affected, but not all of them, only some.
The cyberattack began on Sunday evening. Since Tuesday morning, the intensity has once again increased significantly. "The spam mails are reaching us and our customers in waves," says Swisscom.
Due to the flood of mail, the e-mail service including webmail access is impaired for some customers. Transmission errors may also occur with mail programs (such as Microsoft Outlook) that synchronize with a Bluewin or Bluemail e-mail account.
Invisible enemy
The sender of the spam attack is unknown. Merk said that the emails were probably sent worldwide from computers infected with malware and Trojans. What is unusual is that the emails are being sent via regular mail servers - i.e. those that are not on a blacklist.
The emails each have different senders and different subjects. This makes them very difficult to recognize and intercept. However, the content of the advertising emails is similar: customers are deceived with false, free gifts, writes Swisscom on its website.
"This is the best chance of a lifetime", reads the subject line of the emails. Numerous Bluewin and Bluemail customers express their frustration about the flood of unwanted advertising on Twitter.
Delete instead of read
The company warns people not to reply to such e-mails, not to make any payments, not to disclose any personal data and not to download any files. "Mark dubious e-mails as spam or delete them," recommends the Swisscom spokesperson.
Specialists are working flat out to solve the problem, Merk added. It is not yet clear how long this will take. Swisscom regrets the circumstances and apologizes for the inconvenience. The company is currently unaware that other providers are also affected.
Attacks occur daily
The Federal Reporting and Analysis Center for Information Assurance (MELANI) has also been informed about the attack, as Max Klaus, the deputy head, told the SDA news agency. "We have received numerous reports."
MELANI is in daily contact with the providers and supports them on request and where possible. "Such and similar spam is part of the daily routine," said Klaus.
Billions of spam messages are intercepted every day, writes the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) on its website. "It is above all this work in the background that protects us all from the flood of spam."
No end in sight
Four years ago, the US business magazine Forbes proclaimed the end of spam. The prediction has not come true. According to studies by IT security providers, the number of advertising emails sent worldwide is increasing. They are said to account for around sixty percent of global emails.
Sending spam is still a good business. For professionals, it only takes a little effort to send masses of emails; if just one person clicks on a message that has been sent millions of times, the spammer has already achieved his goal. (SDA)
