Beijing Olympics Sparks Online Attacks
Recent figures released by MessageLabs shows that spam (which turned 30 on May 3rd) was found in 1 of every 1.36 e-mails, or at a rate of 73.5% in April, a 0.3% decline from March. The six month average is 73.7%. Hong Kong was the biggest target, with spam accounting for 83.7% of all e-mail, followed by Switzerland (82.9%), Israel (82.8%), Austria (77.8%), and France (77.6%). Spam accounted for 70.1% of all e-mails in the U.S.
The manufacturing vertical was the most spammed (82.0%), followed by accommodation & catering (79.5%), education (77.6%), wholesale (76.0%), and IT services (75.8%).
Viruses were found in 0.46% of all e-mails, or 1 in 218.9 e-mails. Meanwhile, 1 in 206.1 e-mails contained a phishing attack, or 0.49% of all e-mails in April.
Intercepted Web-based malware increased by 23.3% from March to April.
Also, the study noted that malicious e-mail senders were using the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a way to deceive recipients. Over the past six months, MessageLabs intercepted 13 different Olympic-themed attacks, spanning various industries. Twelve of the 13 attacks were sent from an IP address in Asia Pacific.
MessageLabs also observed a 419 scam (also known as the Nigerian money offer or advance fee fraud) that attempted to utilize a Linked-In profile to give its scheme the guise of authenticity. This was the first time MessageLabs had blocked this kind of scam, in which a professional social networking site was incorporated.
Sources:
http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=939
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=850767
http://www.messagelabs.com/intelligence.aspx
