The year 2007 saw more than 83% of spams containing a URL, in accordance with a trend towards the blending of different malware techniques. URL-based viruses increased to 256% from 2006, says ?2008 internet security trends?, a report from IronPort systems. IronPort, a $250 million business unit of Cisco, is a leading B2B provider of anti-spam, anti-virus, and anti-spyware appliances.
Spam volumes have increased 100% to more than 120 billion spam messages sent daily. This was achieved through classes like the ?Strom? class of ?malware? that introduced new types of spam attacks by carrying out large-scale PDF, XLS attacks and the smaller MP3 outbreak. In 2007, ?Strom Trojan? after it was first detected in January 2007, grew from nonexistent to an estimated 1-10 million infected systems.
These threats basically are sent by a spammer to the target via a spam email leading to a URL. Once the URL is opened, the target might just see an insensible message, while at the backend a spyware is automatically downloaded on the system. The spyware will not hamper anything on the system but send out all the information on the system to the criminals. This eventually leads to the loss of confidential information of big firms, which are then auctioned and are put on sale on the web.
Ambarish Deshpande, regional director, India, IronPort says, ?Initially the spammers would get into the system just to become popular. But now, these small timer spammers have grown into full-time sophisticated professionals of ?organised crime? with an intention to earn huge money.? He said the year ahead will increase such ?organised crimes? to huge numbers that can cause serious damage to corporates as well as the country.
The report reveals that scanning incoming emails and using anti-virus software on the desktop is not enough. The malware kit mPack exploits come over http from what are assumed to be safe sites and the email channel is not involved. There is a worrisome shift in the threat network, where the economics of labour have been divided to allow each participant to focus on what they are best at. This has further advanced the sophistication and damages posed by malware attacks such as mPack and storm.
IronPort has about 250 customers in India, including Jet Airways, Shoppers Stop, US Technology, VSNL, and Reliance amongst others, and it expects to double the same in the coming year.