Email Spam and 'Phishing' Are Still a Huge Problem

In a report prepared by IT Business Edge, a technology advisory service, Symantec Corp.  recently announced that, while spam is currently at the lowest level it has been since the November 2008, consumers and business owners should not relax their scrutiny of inbound emails - there are still plenty of dangers in opening spamming or phishing messages.

The report, from Symantec Intelligence shows that the volume of spam in global circulation each day continues to be quite high. As unbelievable as it may sound, statistics show that spam accounted for a whopping  72.9 percent of all emails in June 2011.   According to Symantec Intelligence, 76.6 percent of this spamwas sent by 'botnets', programmable electronic mail 'robot' identities that
act as mail servers and spit out a steady stream of automated messages, with a
high degree of them containing harmful viruses, 'hijacker' programs and
'phishing' protocols that automatically capture information based on the recipient's email threshold and address book.

'Botnets' are one of the most dangerous forces on the Internet. Cyber criminals use botnets to conduct attacks, carry out fraudulent hijacking of legitimate
websites, host illegal website content on infected computers, harvest personal
data from infected users, and install spyware to track victims' activities
online, reported Paul Wood, senior intelligence analyst, at Symantec.cloud. “Spam remains a huge problem and spam levels continue to be a problem. There were 36.9 billion spam emails in circulation each day during April, 2011", Wood noted.

In this latest report, spam relating to pharmaceutical products accounted for 40 percent of all spam in June 2011. The report showed that online pharmacy spam is now using two new, different angles: one is a spoof of an online video-sharing service and another purports to be coming from a new online pharmacy brand, "WikiPharmacy", seemingly looking to exploit the popularity of the “wiki” name in a number of high-profile, widely-used and widely trusted
websites.

In many of the reported problem emails, the “From:” line in the recipient's email is either a fake or a hijacked ISP account that gives a personalized appearance to the email and even often makes it look as if it has come from a relative or friend
whom the recipient trusts and therefore will be more likely to open.

So, for all of our Patch readers;  three important reminders in terms of email safety:

1. Always use active threat protection software for all business and personal email accounts;

2. Use caution when opening messages that appear to come from family or friends, but seem to be a bit out of the ordinary in terms of what you usually receive from those family members or friends, especially in terms of the subject line; and

3. Never open an email attachment with a suspicious or unknown origin,
or in any way seems to be out of the ordinary. If in doubt, the best practice
is to delete the message and, using a separate and newly initiated message to
the sender (not a forwarding or reply message or you may send the potential
problem on to them), ask if they sent the message with attachment to you.

You'll always be glad you did.