MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/
-- Cybercriminals continue to respond with lightning speed
when they see an opportunity to exploit a national or global news
story to spread malware. In fact, the Commtouch Security Lab now
sees instances of criminals inventing "breaking news" that appears
to relate to high-profile current events.
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The Commtouch Security Lab continually analyzes malicious
campaigns that exploit breaking news using the CNN name and other
prominent news outlets to lure email recipients to malicious sites.
The average time between an actual news event and its exploitation
hovered around 22 hours during the last three months.
On Friday, September 6, malware
distributors invented fake news designed to take advantage of
public interest in the possibility of a U.S. airstrike against
Syria. The emails used the subject
line, "The United States Began Bombing," and were crafted to appear
as a legitimate CNN news alert. It is an example of the
cybercriminal community harnessing the interest and anxiousness
about current events to increase the success of their malicious
campaigns.
Prior to the Syria-related
example, the average start time for a virus attack was already
decreasing. In March 2013, when
the new Pope was elected, the first malware and phishing attacks
began after 55 hours. In April 2013,
after the Boston Marathon bombing, it took 27 hours to see the
first related attacks exploiting interest in the event. Further
examples include the newborn royal baby and news about the NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden.
But examples such as the recent Syria-related campaign in September show that
spammers are not waiting around – they are becoming even "faster"
than the events themselves.
Each month, the research team at Commtouch® (NASDAQ:
CTCH), a leading provider of Internet security technology and
cloud-based services, presents the "Commtouch Security Number of
the Month" – a number representing a current issue or trend in
Internet security.
About Commtouch
Commtouch® (NASDAQ: CTCH)
is a leading provider of Internet security technology and
cloud-based services for vendors and service providers, increasing
the value and profitability of our customers' solutions by
protecting billions of Internet transactions on a daily basis. With
12 global data centers and award-winning, patented technology,
Commtouch's email, Web, and antivirus capabilities easily integrate
into our customers' products and solutions, keeping safe more than
550 million end users. To learn more, visit www.commtouch.com.
- Blog: http://blog.commtouch.com/cafe
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- Twitter: @Commtouch
Recurrent Pattern Detection, RPD, Zero-Hour and GlobalView
are trademarks, and Commtouch is a registered trademark of
Commtouch. U.S. Patent No. 6,330,590 is owned by Commtouch. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
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