[Infowarrior] - Personalized spam rising sharply, study finds

[Richard Forno]

Personalized spam rising sharply, study finds

By JORDAN ROBERTSON
Posted 17 December 2008 @ 05:00 pm EST

Yes, guys, those spam e-mails for Viagra or baldness cream just might  
be directed to you personally. So, too, are many of the other crafty  
come-ons clogging inboxes, trying to lure us to fake Web sites so  
criminals can steal our personal information.

A new study by Cisco Systems Inc. found an alarming increase in the  
amount of personalized spam, which online identity thieves create  
using stolen lists of e-mail addresses or other poached data about  
their victims, such as where they went to school or which bank they use.

Unlike traditional spam, most of which is blocked by e-mail filters,  
personalized spam, known as "spear phishing" messages, often sail  
through unmolested. They're sent in smaller chunks, and often come  
from accounts the criminals have set up at reputable Web-based e-mail  
services. Some of the messages are expertly crafted, linking to  
beautifully designed Web sites that are bogus or immediately install  
malicious programs.

Cisco's annual security study found that spam is growing quickly-- 
nearly 200 billion spam messages are now sent each day, double the  
volume in 2007--and that targeted attacks are also rising sharply.

More than 0.4 percent of all spam sent in September were targeted  
attacks, Cisco found. That might sound low, but since 90 percent of  
all e-mails sent worldwide are spam, this means 800 million messages a  
day are attempts are spear phishing. A year ago, targeted attacks with  
personalized messages were less than 0.1 percent of all spam.

The latest attacks include text-message spam, e-mails trying to trick  
business owners into coughing up credentials for their Google  
advertising accounts, or personalized "whaling" e-mails to executives  
claiming that their businesses are under investigation by the FBI or  
that there's a problem with their personal bank account.

As the world's largest maker of networking gear, Cisco is in a unique  
position to study the traffic flowing through its customers' networks,  
which include the biggest Internet providers and corporations. The  
latest study was based in part on the company's ability to monitor 30  
percent of all Web and e-mail traffic through its hardware and  
software and a network of companies that contribute data.

Read the full article of:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20081217/personalized-spam-rising-sharply-study-finds.htm