Spam is Becoming More Dangerous

The unyielding fight against botnets is now working; spam has been reduced to around 80% of the total email traffic, continuing the strong downward trend established in 2009. The percentage of phishing emails has also considerably decreased. In 2011, Kaspersky Lab’s experts identified just 0.02% of the total email volume as phishing – a 15-fold reduction. The spam problem has not, however, been resolved. More and more emails now contain either harmful file attachments or links, with 2011 bringing a 70% increase in such messages.

Spam is Becoming More Dangerous

Although the volume of spam was reduced in 2011, the messages themselves became more dangerous. Spam emails containing harmful attachments or links made up 3.8% of the total email traffic. In such cases, attackers attempted to trick their potential victims into opening the file attachments or clicking on the links. In order to do this, 2011’s spammers used well-known ruses, including disguising their messages as official bank notices or promising sensational content, such as videos or pictures of celebrity deaths.

Targeted Phishing

The topic of phishing is also one that cannot be dismissed. While the number of phishing mails has been considerably reduced, Kaspersky Lab’s security experts are seeing a trend towards more targeted phishing attacks. Rather than sending mass emails, professional phishing attackers are focusing on small, selected groups. This technique, known as “spear phishing”, has the same aims as regular phishing, but is generally carried out in a much more professional manner. Its perpetrators create official-looking registration forms or websites, and even address their victims by name.

Further Details

More background information, further details and analyses of the IT security situation in 2011 can be found in the Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2011.