Intellectual Property Law

McAfee Warns Spam, Trojans and Botnets Skyrocketing

By David Kravets

Zombie penetration set a record for the second straight quarter this year. Spam jumped 80 percent from the previous period, which made it a record 92 percent of all e-mail, according to the McAfee Threats Report released Wednesday.

“If the economy could rebound as spam has done in (the) second quarter, we would all be much happier with our retirement accounts. Spam has surged since the prior quarter, increasing nearly 80 percent. Last year’s spam fell drastically from previous quarters, in large part due to the shutdown of the McColo ISP,” the report said.

The report also warned of emerging threats of auto-run malware to increased botnets. Password-pilfering trojans are proliferating and expected to double this year from the prior year.

Researchers also warned of increasing malicious attacks on social-networking sites like Twitter, where URLs often are condensed. “The caution that users usually apply when they view search results and news links disappears behind the obfuscating address,” the report notes.

Read the report here (.pdf).

See Also:

• FBI Cracks Down (Again) on Zombie Computer Armies
• Botnets Took Control of 12 Million New IPs this Year
• Botnets Beat Spartan Laser on Halo 3
• Spammers Seize On Obama’s Moment
• ISP Seen Breaking Internet Protocol to Fight Zombie Computers

Full post as published by Threat Level on July 29, 2009 (boomark / email).