Spam Peaks Several Times a Day

Sophos, the IT security and control company, has found that spam mail traffic has been rising to peak levels according to time zones in different parts of the world. When it was most prolific in January 2008, the malicious Storm laced spam mails accounted for 16% of total e-mail.

Spam mails infecting unsuspecting users with the Storm Trojan were responsible for 4% of all e-mail in January 2008, with sharp rises in such traffic occurring as many as three times every 24 hours. This phenomenon was observed on Internet-connected computers in New York, London and Beijing.

Senior Technology Consultant, Graham Cluley, at Sophos, said that the gang behind the Storm-created botnet is distinctly known to have spammed mails to spread its malicious worm designed to draw recipients' attention via news referring to stories making breaking headlines or events like the Valentine's Day, as reported by govtech on January 30, 2008.

Graham further said that the huge number of hijacked computers in the USA, Europe and Asia kickstart a fresh wave of spam mails at 10 a.m. every morning as they go online.

Besides, SophosLabs identified more than 50,000 variants of Storm in 2007, and given the fact that hackers infect users with new variants so frequently, it is absolutely essential that businesses ensure protection for their systems from spam.

Aside this, the APWG (Anti-Phishing Working Group) announced on January 31, 2008 that the total number of brands reportedly used in phishing attacks exceeded all earlier records. These brands numbered to 178 government agencies and financial institutions whose names were exploited for phishing schemes.

Meanwhile, the APWG has found that more financial service institutions in Europe and Middle East are being targeted. Additionally, large US credit unions and banking institutions and several federal taxes dealing agencies are also targeted.

In a statement published by Businesswire on January 31, 2008, Peter Cassidy, Secretary General of APWG, said that the attack mode is becoming more and more fragmented as phishers recognize and exploit social engineering and technical opportunities to launch scams orchestrated against financial organizations.

Cassidy added that the move calls for the urgent need to coordinate electronic crime data collection for forensic analysis.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 2/8/2008