Targeted Attacks Replace Mass Outbreaks

A new security threat report from security company Trend Micro indicates that most hackers are now increasingly targeting specific users rather than launching a widespread epidemic.

Analysts at Trend Micro said that such targeted assaults are displacing global bulk outbreaks as today monetary rewards drive hackers' operations unlike earlier objectives of gaining notoriety. The cyber miscreants hide behind the Internet as they strategize ever-changing ways to elude detection by anti virus software.

The report highlights the changing landscape of Internet threats, as cyber-crooks become more sophisticated. Their modus operandi and motivation is changing with users becoming savvier about online threats and taking precautions in their online activities. This then forces criminals to find new methods to entice users into doing what they want, Ross Wilson, Trend Micro's MD for Consumer Products & Services in APAC Region, Singapore said, and SDA-ASIA published it on July 6, 2007.

Today, the challenge for consumers is to be alert about these threats and understand their nature since they're more treacherous than the earlier ones. Consumers as well as business users must have proper knowledge and proactive anti virus solutions for ensuring complete safety from these threats, said Wilson.

Trend Micro's report also points that cyber criminals extensively use social engineering tactics in their attempts to entice users into opening the malicious attachments in e-mails and visit spurious websites.

Trend Micro further said that Asian spam was growing. The biggest spams in non-English languages are Chinese and Japanese at 33% and 58%, respectively.

According to the report, gambling websites are the major phishing targets. Gamers at Party Poker website suffered theft of their Internet account details when they accessed and used the counterfeit website.

The report also uncovered the spyware that illicitly removes media files downloaded from the Internet. The malware emerged in Japan in 2006 and deleted music & video files downloaded from the Web. It is believed that an anti-piracy organization executed the two-spyware versions namely TSPY_DENUTARO and TSPY_DENUTARO.DM. The file was in the form of a .Zip folder, which on clicking began deleting media files.

Related article: TRUSTe Certified Websites May Still Contain Malware

» SPAMfighter News - 7/20/2007