Spammers Made June ‘Month of Malware’
The loss of several zombie networks due to legal actions caused spammers to up their criminal activities to make up for lost revenue, making June the month of malware, according to Symantec’s State of Spam & Phishing Report of June.
In 2010, malware levels never rose above 3 percent of all spam, even on days when malware spam increased. In June, however, malware spam made up almost 12 percent of all spam on the 13th, and topped 5 percent on the 3rd and 15th.
Phishing numbers also increased in June with approximately 25 percent. Phishing websites created by automated toolkits has an increase of 123 percent from May. The number of non-English phishing sites also grew by 15 percent. Among non-English phishing sites, French and Italian continued to be higher in June. Phishing in French increased by one-fourth mainly in the e-commerce sector.
Three of the most commonly used subject lines used by spammers include a blank subject line, “Outlook Setup Notification”and “Reset your Facebook Password.”
Symantec’s report also noted how the United States continues to be the leading country of origin when it comes to spam, followed by India and the Netherlands. The United States also remains the top location for phishing lures and and phishing hosts.
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