Spam on Political And Sporting Events to be Widespread

In its latest Threat Forecast & Report for August 2008, security services vendor - MX Logic - revealed that the downward trend of spam volumes during the four-month period reversed to rise almost 16% in July 2008. This increasing trend is likely to continue and even accelerate in August 2008 on account of the strong relationship between spam volumes and seasonal norms.

Earlier in July 2008, hackers unleashed a wave of Fourth of July spam mails containing malicious links in attempts to entice computer users to pull down the Storm Trojan from the Internet. Several media sources reported the outburst and a number of security agencies issued alerts. However, the most common form of spam in July 2008 was the messages that contained just one line along with an URL link leading to a site that encouraged users to view a video by downloading a supposedly safe codec.

The researchers also said that although not unusual or unexpected, spam on the subject of the US Presidential election would increase drastically as the race for political power would get into its full swing in August 2008. It is also anticipated that spammers would utilize the one-line spam strategy to entice recipients with promises of videos from the presidential candidates.

Furthermore, e-mail and Websites would be used as popular mechanisms to spread propaganda as well as misinformation about the candidates. Hackers might also compromise reputed political Websites to spread malware. It is, therefore, important that the general public be extra cautious and wise about the origin of information regarding either candidate.

Apart from this, the approaching NFL season is likely to give new opportunities to spammers for sending spam e-mails and for distributing malware. In 2007, e-mails purporting to originate from the National Football League offered recipients a scoreboard for downloading but it turned out to be the Storm Trojan that compromised users' computers.

Finally, according to MXLogic, the 2008 Summer Olympics would be a reason for hackers' and spammers' rush for the golden opportunities. They would increase activities with fraud schemes connected to the event.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 8/19/2008