Cyber Crime: Old Game, New Tricks
By Abhinna Shreshtha
Mumbai, Dec 24, 2007

According to Web security solutions provider, Symantec, in 2007, 74 % of all monitored e-mail traffic in India was spam. The global percentage of 61% represented a slight increase over the last six months of 2006 (59%). The bad news is far from over. "Image spam was on the forefront of the resurgence of spam. These 'creative tactics' didn't stop there. Spammers launched several spam "firsts" throughout the year, including tactics using bot herders, audio and video files, and Google alerts and searches. They also explored different protocols and platforms such as Instant Messaging, SMS and even multi-player online games," said Prabhat Kumar Singh, Director (security response) of Symantec India.

Symantec observed an innovative method, used by spammers to add people to their spam lists. In November, millions of blank messages were sent out as part of a concerted directory harvest attack. These messages with an empty subject and body seem to be of no obvious purpose for a typical end user. In a directory harvest campaign, spammers bombard email servers with "guessed" email addresses. The email addresses that are not rejected are assumed to be valid and added to spam lists for a subsequent spam attack.

Some of the new techniques used in 2007 were:

* Teaming with botherders (Storm worm/Peacomm Trojan)
* Audio (MP3) and video use (i.e. YouTube)
* Leveraging Google Alerts and Search
* Use of different protocols/platforms (e.g. IM, SMS, and multi-player online games)

It has also been noticed that spammers are increasingly teaming up with botherders and phishers to perpetuate cyber crime. As Singh says, "Recent activity indicates that spammers, phishers work hand-in hand to perpetuate cyber crime. Symantec has observed high levels of coordinated attacks combining spam, malicious code, and online fraud."

So how exactly can spam affect an enterprise's efficiency? When your employees are bombarded with hundreds of spam mails throughout the day, sifting through them and deleting them is definitely going to consume time and affect productivity. If this was the only complaint, spam could be viewed as nothing more than an annoying inconvenience. However, spam can be used to infect machines with viruses and this is a serious concern. Says Singh, "These worms infect a new computer every time an unwary e-mail user opens the attached file containing the program. Spam-based worm attacks are nothing new, but hackers are increasingly using them as a tool to slip in damaging programs. Once these worms land in e-mail inboxes, they can wreak havoc on a person's computer or be used as a Trojan horse to damage other machines."

With enterprises and security solutions providers stepping up efforts to block spam, spammers are moving away from old favorites such as image and PDF spam, and are looking out for new alternatives. Some of these trends, observed by Symantec in 2007, were:

* Image Spam (Mr. Ransom, Newsletter Spam, etc): Rapid increase, continual evolution, and steady decline to a small overall fraction

* Attachment Spam (PDFs, Zip files, etc.): Burst onto the scene with rapid increase, some expected evolution, rapid decline to nearly nothing

* Pump-and-Dump Stock Scam Spam: Remained one of the top categories of spam (21% 1H07, 30% decline from 2H06 attributed to SEC operation); continual evolution

* New Social Engineering: Spammers utilized interest in events like the Beijing Olympics, California wildfires, Saddam Hussein execution, etc. to spread spam.

* Fraud and Scam Spam: Steady increase and evolution (i.e. twists to 419 scam, E-cards, etc.)

Spammers should be credited with being the most resilient entities on the Worldwide Web. In spite of unrelenting efforts to curb them, they keep coming up with new methods of plaguing us with a doggedness that is hard not to appreciate. It remains for enterprises to take them seriously and remain constantly alert to avert misfortune.


Related links:

Global Spam & Converged Threats On the Rise

Spammers Make Merry During Christmas