I got Spam?!

CIO.com has an excellent article about the Cybercriminal Ecosystem. It examines the evolution of crimeware and how malware creation groups follow the organization of legit groups. Here is an excerpt:

It began a year or so ago with a shift in the very nature and principles of malware creation to that of being economically driven. We can see that there are several stages within this evolution that have contributed to the present day situation:
A shift from curiosity to profit gain.

Malware creation becomes more organized towards one goal: financial gain through illicit means.

Malware authors begin to follow common trends in business and commerce in order to take advantage of their victims (i.e. iPhones, etc).

The first ever cyber-crime for sale is available through various Russian hacking forums.

Malware authors change tactics to saturating security labs with an ever increasing pace of new malware in hopes to create a sustained denial of service against resources

To read more check out CIO Advice and Opinion!

• SPAM, Viruses and the Blacklisting of Exchange Servers
• GFI Adds Support for January 2008 Microsoft Security Updates
• Spammers Use Lunar Eclipse to Deliver Malware
• New Phishing Attack Masquerades as Government Alert
• Spammers top 10 report: US Leading the Axis of Evil!
• Security Software Industry Takes First Steps Towards Forming Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization
• Judge Orders End to Weight Loss Spam Organization
• Botnet Source Code For Overachievers
• Using Throttling and Traffic Shaping to Fight Spam
• Phishing Sites Now Using the Storm Worm Botnet
• Japanese Spammer Accused of Sending Over 2 Million Spams

Filed under: Malware Tags: by admin Date 25 February, 2008