The Deadly Duo: Spam and Viruses, November 2006
Spammers capitalize the holiday season with spear-phishing attacks and other grinch-like activities.
Spammers capitalize the holiday season with spear-phishing attacks and other grinch-like activities.
This holiday season, spammers are increasing their efforts faster than online spending is growing. The Malware Research Center, a part of PC Tools Solftware, estimates a 41 percent increase in spy- and malware this season, compared to an estimated 25 percent increase in online shopping.
Enterprise-class application security appliance vendor Barracuda Networks reports an increase in spam volume of 67 percent in the past month, and a 500 percent increase in image spam since August.
The company said spam has nearly tripled in volume since the CAN-SPAM act. In December 2003 when it was passed, spam accounted for between 30 and 35 percent of all e-mail. Just three years later, spam volumes have increased to between 85 and 90 percent of all e-mail on the Web.
Sophos warns of an image spam campaign using Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista. as bait. Spam recipients are told they can save $319.05 by downloading a version.
The “2006 Annual MessageLabs Intelligence Report” issued by MessageLabs warns of the “relentless escalation of spam activity throughout the year.” It places the annual average spam levels at 86.2 percent. The increase in traffic is attributed to a higher sophistication of botnets and new targeted techniques. The report breaks out the top trends in 2006.
Predictions for 2007
November marked the appearance of the Warezov.gj worm. It was detected by Kaspersky Lab on November 22. Within three weeks it became the most widespread virus accounting for 18 percent share of traffic. In the same period, the worm Nyxeum.e returned to circulation and held a 9.89 percent share of traffic.
Top 20 Viruses, November 2006 | ||
---|---|---|
Position | Name | Percentage |
1 | Email-Worm.Win32.Warezov.gj | 18.27 |
2 | Email-Worm.Win32.Warezov.ev | 14.88 |
3 | Email-Worm.Win32.Nyxem.e | 9.89 |
4 | Email-Worm.Win32.NetSky.t | 7.54 |
5 | Email-Worm.Win32.Scano.gen | 6.57 |
6 | Net-Worm.Win32.Mytob.c | 5.68 |
7 | Email-Worm.Win32.NetSky.q | 5.25 |
8 | Email-Worm.Win32.Zafi.b | 4.40 |
9 | Email-Worm.Win32.NetSky.aa | 2.77 |
10 | Net-Worm.Win32.Mytob.t | 2.01 |
11 | Email-Worm.Win32.LovGate.w | 1.48 |
12 | Email-Worm.Win32.NetSky.b | 1.41 |
13 | Email-Worm.Win32.Warezov.fh | 1.29 |
14 | Trojan-Spy.HTML.Bankfraud.od | 1.08 |
15 | Net-Worm.Win32.Mytob.u | 1.04 |
16 | Email-Worm.Win32.Warezov.gl | 0.97 |
17 | Email-Worm.Win32.Warezov.do | 0.87 |
18 | Email-Worm.Win32.Mydoom.l | 0.77 |
19 | Email-Worm.Win32.Bagle.gen | 0.76 |
20 | Net-Worm.Win32.Mytob.w | 0.73 |
Other malicious programs | 12.34 | |
Source: Kaspersky Lab, 2006 |