Archive for the ‘Virus and Spyware’ Category

Kaspersky Lab has published its review of spammer activity in October 2011. This month witnessed mass mailings exploiting high-profile events, a shift in phishing targets and spam sources were spread more evenly over more countries.

October was rich in sensational events which, as usual, the spammers exploited to the full. Mass mailings were registered that referred to the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs, the majority of them containing malicious code. Spammers also reacted to another death, that of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on 20 October, with some classic ‘Nigerian’ letters. Users received emails allegedly sent by Gaddafi’s “relatives” and his “former officers”, who had allegedly inherited part of his “countless treasures”. All the letters contained offers to share some of the wealth. There were also messages with a Christmas or New Year twist adding a seasonal flavour to October’s spam. They tended to contain adverts for presents and trips during the festive season.

Kaspersky Lab announces the publication of its IT Threat Evolution report for the third quarter of 2011. The company’s analysts noted a continued growth in cyber-attacks against some of the world’s biggest corporations throughout the period. When it comes to attacking smartphones, there were clear signs that cybercriminals have made Android their platform of choice. Increasingly sophisticated operations by malicious programs were also noted in Q3 along with some tried-and-tested methods: innocuous QR codes are now being used to conceal malware and computers are facing threats even before their operating systems start as cybercriminals revisit BIOS infection methods.