Spam Blast Heavily in Early Months of 2008

According to MX Logic, a security company, spammers have expanded their activities during 2008 by resetting their strategy with increasing success rates at spamming even more e-mails to people's accounts.

Based on previous years' statistics, the volume of spam has been observed to remain stable from the time of the vacations indicating that e-mail users could find a new wave of spam attacks in the current year (2008).

According to MX Logic, spam rates typically come down by around 30% from the peak levels during Christmas in the early months of the New Year. But the Security Company says that this year's trend is different with the levels of spam holding steady with some instances of even rising.

According to the firm, this is especially true with phishing e-mails that doubled in number from January 2008 to February 2008 and image spam rising by 60% over the same period. Overall the company estimated the spam rates at around 88%.

MX Logic also said that social engineering tricks such as the use of false Google search hits that redirect users to Google ParkRange-abused sites and the Microsoft update notices are still continuing to expand. According to the firm, spam mails are blasted with crafty URLs embedded that put up keyword queries and mimic the Google "I'm Feeling Lucky" option, which by default connects users with the highest-ranking site of the query.

In addition, MX Logic noted that many legacy threats re-emerged during January-February 2008 including Master Boot Record Rootkit and Drive-by Pharming attacks.

According to Director of Threat Management at MX Logic, Sam Masiello, with the reappearance of cyber attacks using rootkits, MX Logic explains that rootkit malware is launched when the Basic Input Output system of a computer activates the machine's master boot code in the operating system, as reported by tgdaily on March 12, 2008.

Elsewhere, Masiello warned that this demonstrates how spammers are committed just like before to exploiting e-mail vulnerabilities at any place or at any time. Therefore, it is particularly essential to maintain high-level security vigilance, as reported by The Earth Times on March 12, 2008.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 3/24/2008