Spam isn't going anywhere, except to a lot of e-mail addresses, and more of it unfortunately is containing potentially dangerous malicious code. That is among the findings of “The State of Spam: A Monthly Report – October 2008,” generated by Symantec Messaging and Web Security. According to the report spam now averages 78 percent of all e-mail, but it is most worrisome that much of this spam is anything but harmless ads for Viagra or pornography.
In the October 2008 report Symantec highlights that the trend is on the rise of spam messages containing URL links to malicious code. This increase began in
May of this year and continues to the present. During the summer there had been an increase in e-mail messages say the report, and these e-mails carried malware payloads as well, not just the links to the malicious code.
Symantec has found that spammers have begun to take note of the economy since last year at this time, and the much of the spam takes advantage of economic worry, as well as other news.
The following headlines were noted in the October 2008 report as being used by spammers to trick the receiver into opening the e-mail:
• Spam Watch: Monitoring the Increasing Link Between Spam and Malware
• Zombie Activity Continues with the Help of their Voodoo Sorcerers (Spammers)
• Spammers Feed Off Economic Worries
• Spammers ‘Rock the Vote’ in the U.S. Presidential Election
• Spammers’ Hall of Shame
And as with other online threats, much of what is happening in spam is home grown as well with 29 percent of all spam in the last month originating in the United States. Eight percent coming from Turkey, and just seven percent coming from Russia, while South Korea and China followed next with about four percent.
As mentioned, rather than just promoting a spam product, there has been a marked with an increase in spam messages that contain URL links to malicious code, while the newest concern are e-mails that contain malware designed to infect other computers with viruses and Trojans. Among the more worrisome threats are those that go to great efforts to trick the
receiver. Noted in the report was one e-mail that contained a link to cnnworld.org, a reference to the U.S. cable news network, which even contained a CNN-looking site complete with video to download. That video is what contains the malware code. This is certainly a long way from the days of “Britney nude,” type spam.