Symantec: PDF Spam Almost Gone, More Elaborate Social Engineering
Symantec Security Response Weblog: September State of Spam Report asks:
Where did PDF spam go? Highlighted in a previous post as an emerging trend, PDF and other attachment spam reached a high in early August but closed out the month with record lows. First seen in June of 2007 with PDF files, attachment spam grew to encompass PDF, XLS and RAR files. By Early August, this spam type was seen in 20 percent of all spam, but by late August, accounted for less than one percent. Symantec will continue to monitor this trend closely for any changes.
PDF spam had its 15 minutes of fame and now it's on to new tactics by spammers. The report also notes:
First reported in the August State of Spam Report, greeting cards containing malicious content continued to be observed. These attacks continue to morph—including the social engineering tact of pointing readers to the ever popular YouTube site—as the spammer tries different tactics to lure the recipient to click the URL containing the malicious code.
The rapid demise of PDF spam and the quick adaptations by the Storm worm over the past several weeks indicates how quickly spammers and malware developers are responding to countermeasures and the better spread of news about threats.
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