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- May 18, 1997
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Never click on anything that you do not know what it is...for sure. F-Secure is telling us that spam mail is still in the number one spot for malware and phishing distribution. OK, it has been that way for 40 years, but what is interesting is that email spam is on the way up percentage-wise, as other systems we access are getting more secure.
Criminals are not just relying on the content of spam to trick users. They are also using new methods to infect users who are wise to the dangers of clicking on unsolicited attachments. “Rather than just using malicious attachments, the spam we’re seeing often features a URL that directs you to a harmless site, which then redirects you to site hosting malicious content. The extra hop is an analysis evasion method for keeping the malicious content hosted for as long as possible,” Päivi says. “And when attachments are used, the criminals often attempt to avoid automatic analysis by asking the user to enter a password featured in the body of the email to open the file.”
Criminals are not just relying on the content of spam to trick users. They are also using new methods to infect users who are wise to the dangers of clicking on unsolicited attachments. “Rather than just using malicious attachments, the spam we’re seeing often features a URL that directs you to a harmless site, which then redirects you to site hosting malicious content. The extra hop is an analysis evasion method for keeping the malicious content hosted for as long as possible,” Päivi says. “And when attachments are used, the criminals often attempt to avoid automatic analysis by asking the user to enter a password featured in the body of the email to open the file.”