According to the latest figures released by IT security and control firm Sophos, eight times more malicious e-mail attachments were sent out in the third quarter of 2008 than in the previous quarter.
From July through September one in every 416 e-mails contained a dangerous attachment. During the second quarter this figure was one in every 3,333 e-mails.
Sophos pointed to several large malware attacks made during the third quarter, the worst of which was the Agent-HNY Trojan horse. This attack masqueraded as the Penguin Panic game for Apple iPhones.
“Too many people are clicking without thinking — exposing themselves to hackers who are hell-bent on gaining access to confidential information and raiding bank accounts,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
“The advice is simple: you should never open unsolicited attachments, however tempting they may appear.”
In terms of the top spam-relaying countries during the third quarter of 2008, the United States topped the list with an 18.9 percent share.
Russia, which was responsible for 4.4 percent of all spam relayed last year, is now second with an 8.3 percent share. Turkey followed with an 8.2 percent share.
China (including Hong Kong) was fourth with 5.4 percent, followed by Brazil with a 4.5 percent share.
South Korea (3.8 percent), India (3.5 percent), Argentina (2.9 percent), Italy (2.8 percent), the United Kingdom (2.7 percent), Colombia (2.5 percent) and Thailand (2.4 percent) rounded out the top 12 list.
Other countries together accounted for 34.3 percent of all spam relayed during the quarter.
Asia was the top spam-relaying continent with a 39.9 percent share, followed by Europe with 23.9 percent and North America with 21.8 percent.
South America was fourth with 13.2 percent, followed by Africa with 1.0 percent and Other with 0.3 percent.
Secure Computing’s latest quarterly “Internet Threat Report” indicated that phishing attacks are targeting consumers concerned about the financial crisis and the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
“Breaking news” and “Delivery status notification” related spam messages were also popular.
The report also noted that more than 5,000 zombie computers are being created every hour around the globe due to malicious attacks, further compounding the spam problem.
Sources:
http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2008/10/spamreport.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/eight-times-more-malicious-email/story.aspx?guid={AB0B5781-2734-415B-827A-D4B6568A86FA}&dist=hppr
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2229159/spam-targets-economy-election
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