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Search Spam Back On The Rise
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2009-02-24
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It's not a new tactic, but it is a revisited one. Spammers are using search engine links-redirect links created by searching for a domain or keyword and copied before resolving-to disguised the addresses of their malicious websites. They do this to fool spam filters by piggybacking on the credibility of major search engines like Google.
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URLs like this appear to be from, for example, google.com, but once a target clicks they resolve to the actual site.
Sneaky jerks, aren't they?
Symantec's MessageLabs, in their monthly Intelligence report, dubs the resurgence "recession spam" because subject lines allude to hard times and product discounts. After this type of spam was first identified in January of 2008, search engine spam reached levels as high as 17 percent. MessageLabs thinks the trend will grow as the recession continues.
Overall, spam peaked early in February climbing as high as 79.5 percent of all email thanks to an abundance of Valentine's Day spam. Otherwise, spam related to the financial crisis has been the topic of choice.
"The level of activity around Valentine's themed spam reached unprecedented highs accounting for nine percent of all spam messages," said Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst. "With the financial crisis front of mind for many organizations and consumers, spammers and phishers are using this topic to their advantage and targeting people when times are tough."
Phishing attacks were also up in February, perhaps in the hopes of taking advantage of consumer worry about the banking industry; phishing attacks rose to one in 190 emails, up from one in 396 in January.
Though spam text still shows bad English or weird, nonsensical, unpoetic marketing logic-"Money is tight, times are hard. Christmas is over. Time to get a new watch!"-spammers' technical skills are getting better. MessageLabs intercepted a new technique using forged headers for targeted Trojan attacks. Headers are intended to act as a vapor trail so that the path of an email can be tracked.
Some statistics from this month's report:
26 percent of all web-based malware intercepted was new.
941 new malware websites are created daily, which is actually a 22 percent decrease since January.
73 percent of spam in February came from new or previously unknown sources.
Despite a 9 percent drop in spam this month, France is still the most-spammed country in the world.
India is the computer virus capital of the world, with 1 in 197 emails containing a virus.
The Education sector is the most spammed industry in the world.
Accommodation and Catering spam is the most likely to be infected with a virus, with one in 95 infected.
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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