MX Logic Predicts Spammers’ key New Year Tactics

On December 8, 2008, MX Logic published a series of spammers' resolutions that it expects them to make for the New Year (2009).

The first and foremost, says the firm, is to harass users of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other websites on Web 2.0. In 2008, spammers intensified their activities on sites for social networking by sending malicious links through unsolicited e-mails. MX Logic predicts a wave of attacks via these Web 2.0 sites as membership keeps rising and entrepreneurial applications accelerate.

Another technique that spammers are likely to use is infecting authentic websites with harmful links. Hackers are expected to step up efforts to conceal malicious code inside legitimate websites that would make visitors increasingly vulnerable to infections without even "clicking" for malicious content.

In addition, spammers are set to make spam-spewing botnets more agile and resilient. When the notorious McColo provider was shut down, it severely impaired several botnets, resulting in the fall of spam traffic by around 50%. MX Logic predicts that spammers will create or upgrade botnets that would be more resilient and less dependent on any one hosting provider.

Furthermore, spammer will increase and improve their social engineering tricks in 2009. According to MX Logic, spam campaigns based on current events will continue to rise as the criminals make their campaigns more real in appearance and hard to detect.

Sam Masiello, Vice President of Information Security, MX Logic, said that spammers are moving away from conventional network-layer attacks and are concentrating more on discovering security flaws in Web 2.0 technologies. According to him, companies, therefore, need to increase their vigilance on their network security as communication devices, applications and platforms keep on evolving and are upgraded to new forms, as reported by MarketWatch on December 8, 2008.

Besides, to stay protected from these and several other internet and e-mail threats, MX Logic has recommended installing multiple security layers throughout organization instead of depending on any single anti-virus or anti-spam solution.

Also, it becomes even more important to use current security patches and updates, as cyber attacks become increasingly dynamic.

Related article: Mac OS X Devoid of Malware, Vexing Experts

» SPAMfighter News - 12/15/2008