Cybercriminals bringing more spam, innovation
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Newly released reports on spam have found cybercriminals have gotten more innovative in their malware attacks and finding new ways to distribute unwanted emails.
The new intelligence report from MessageLabs found the spam email levels had increased five percent since December, which places it among 75 percent of all email sent. This puts the level close to where spam emails were at prior to the takedown of internet service provider McColo.
One possible reason for the increase in spam may be the innovative attacks from cybercriminals, SCMagazineus.com reports. Social engineering attacks through sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn have proved to be successful, as well as using botnets to distribute emails containing malicious links.
Also, cybercriminals have used the power of current events to lure users into thinking emails are legit. Recently spam email took advantage of President Barack Obama's historic campaign and used fake news stories about the conflict in Gaza to spread malicious links.
SMBs, which are frequent targets of cybercriminals, are urged by security officials to increase security with their sensitive data. Some organizations have employed email archiving to protect against attacks and assist in disaster recovery.
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