Blue Security has issued a report detailing how peer-to-peer (P2P) networks allow spammers to harvest e-mail addresses from users without their knowledge. The report shows hundreds of incidents where files containing e-mail addresses were made accessible in P2P networks. Blue Security discovered that Internet users utilizing P2P networks to share music, games, DVDs and other files unwittingly expose and accidentally share Outlook and Outlook Express data files containing e-mail addresses and other contact information of friends and colleagues, as well as e-mail messages, meetings, tasks and notes. Once exposed, these e-mail lists are quickly harvested by spammers.
Blue Security’s research team conducted a P2P harvesting test to determine how quickly spammers access and steal these e-mail addresses and personal information. On two major P2P networks, it took only three days for all personal information to be downloaded approximately 25 times each — and for 700 spam messages to be received from six different spammers.
The P2P harvesting study in full is available at www.bluesecurity.com. Additional information such as an upcoming public beta for its “Do Not Disturb” registry and tutorials on how spammers operate, is also available at the site.