Storm Spam Doubles, Attackers Experimenting with New Techniques
Morphing social engineering techniques is the latest trick used by spammers, especially with the Storm spam and it fits with a strategy of targeting vulnerabilities with users less than with technology. It doesn't seem so long ago that PDF spam was the rage with spammers and before that image spam. The half lives of these techniques seems to be shrinking but there always seems to be a new and better scam emerging. This week the lure is to join an exclusive Web-club. Security Fix is reporting fake greeting cards and "sexy pics" lures are being replace with the likes of this:
We are glad you joined Web Players.User Number: 75129641513 Your Temp. Login ID: user3469 Your Password ID: lc411
Please keep your account secure by logging in and changing your login info.
Use this link to change your Login info: http://70.258.83.482.95 [link altered by Security Fix for safety's sake]Thank You,
Welcome Department
Web Players
If you follow the link, you're asked to download a "login" applet which is the Storm Trojan. Ed Rowley, an engineer at Marshal notes in NetworkWorld
The key item of interest is how quickly the criminal gangs are changing their techniques,” says Rowley. “Over the last few weeks we have seen them experimenting with spam and using all sorts of different attachments. This time they are trying different techniques to get users to infect their machines and become part of the problem.
The spammers have hit on something here. They may need to change their tactics to avoid anti-spam filters, but the strategy of targeting user's vulnerabilities is staying pretty constant. It makes sense, we go so far as to give away information on social network sites - of course it will be harvested and used for spear phishing attacks. Facebook recognizes this and has said:
welcomes every opportunity to educate users about how to protect their data online.
Yea, that's the trick now isn't it.
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