Spammers 'getting retro' with attacks?

2009-07-03

In the second quarter of 2009 there was maintained unpredictability in the spamming world and a resurgence of old-style attacks, according to Google.

The organisation revealed that average spam levels were 53 per cent higher than in the previous quarter and six per cent above the 2008 second quarter figures.

However, Amanda Kleha, from the Google message security and archiving team, questioned whether spammers, who may be using malware to carry out an IT intrusion, were running out of original ideas.

Mr Kleha explained that while some new techniques were being used, so were "retro" ones.

He asked: "Like Hollywood, are we now starting to see spam 'remakes', based on originals of a few years ago? And what are spammers looking to accomplish as they unleash these remakes?"

Sophos has recently warned users to be wary of spam messages covering the death of Michael Jackson.

It explained that they could be used to harvest computer users' email addresses for future spam campaigns.

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