Spammers Switched to New Techniques of Attack

A research by BitDefender revealed that stock spam came down from 25% to only 2% of total attacks in 6 months to June 2008. On the other hand, phishing attacks increases on users and spoofed banks.

Further, the text-based spam increased from 20% of users during the first half of 2007 to 70% in first half of 2008, while image based spam came down from 60% in the first half of 2007 to only 3% in first half of 2008.

The research informed that text spam still appeals to automated scripts for rephrasing or synonymic substitution and word scrambling. On the other hand, image based spam distributes enigmatic data. Further, during the first half of 2008, the content of mail spam lost its hold on stock options.

Spam Analyst of BitDefender, Andra Miloiu said that plain text are found to be the most frequent method for mail spam distribution because of its versatility, small size and simplicity, as reported by ComputerWorld on July 8, 2008.

Other types of spam such as mails with PDF attachments and audio or video files began to loose their grip among the hackers. Interestingly, only 15% of users reported about such events during the Q1 of 2008.

What is acceptable medium of mail spam during 2008, noted the data security solutions provider, are replica watches, pushing efforts and drugs. Some of other modes of mail spam are loans, hiring and employment tools, pornography and pirated software.

BitDefender informed that many of phishing scams appear to have come from US and mainly attacks the native English speakers in the US, UK and Canada. But, it is also noted that France, Italy and Spain became targeted. Majority of unauthentic mails target the fears of users like account blocking or expiration, or asking for private data for updating accounts for security purpose.

Chief of BitDefender Antispam Research Lab, Vlad Valceanu said that hackers are consistently working on their unauthentic spam mail skills. Further, the simple text spam showcase their talents with the grand total figure of ID theft victims reaching 50,000 each month, as reported by PCMagazine on July 8, 2008.

Related article: Spammers Continue their Campaigns Successfully

» SPAMfighter News - 7/24/2008