May 14, 2012 - .node-content-pad td {padding:2px 4px !important;}Symantec has observed an increase in spam messages containing URLs using the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for India. This chart shows percentage of spam containing .in URLs: (continue reading...) Read more
April 25, 2012 - Symantec is intercepting a resurgence of spam attacks on popular brands. Spam messages that are replicas of the Wikipedia email address confirmation alert are the new vector for the present. The said spam messages pretend to be originating from Wikipedia, and are (continue reading...) Read more
March 20, 2012 - .node-content-pad td {padding: 2px 4px !important;}During the past two weeks, Symantec has observed an increase in hit & run spam activities (also known as snowshoe spam) in its Global Intelligence Network. Hit & run spam messages have the following (continue reading...) Read more
March 15, 2012 - Nobody knew about Jeremy Lin a couple of months ago. But now, Linsanity rocks the world. Being a new NBA star, his name has already been mentioned countless times on ESPN, NY Times, and all other sports media. If you are (continue reading...) Read more
March 8, 2012 - Recently we noticed spammers abusing Dropbox, a popular cloud-based, file-hosting and synchronization tool, to spread spam. Dropbox accounts have a public folder where files can be placed and made publicly available. This function is useful to spammers, as it effectively turns (continue reading...) Read more
February 8, 2012 - Thanks to Anand Muralidharan for their assistance with this research. Televison channels across the world are set to be at the 14th International Exhibition and Forum, World Content Show, held Feb 7- 9, 2012, in Russia. The exhibition showcases the latest (continue reading...) Read more
February 7, 2012 - At 3 AM, on February 6, 2012, Symantec Security Response observed spam carrying malicious links which target the upcoming tax season. The spam volume spiked between 6 AM and 1 PM, identifying over 200 unique URLs which lead to a (continue reading...) Read more
February 4, 2012 - You may not need pills to watch the super bowl but spammers feel that this definitely is an occasion to do so! The most exciting annual championship of the NFL - the Super Bowl XLVI - starts tomorrow. And as (continue reading...) Read more
January 31, 2012 - Nothing can be more enticing than to be chosen for some free goodies—be it mementos, a cash prize, or a ticket to watch a game. It gets even more interesting if you are from a cricket crazy continent and suddenly, (continue reading...) Read more
January 30, 2012 - Malware is often embedded in email as compressed attachments (such as .zip, .rar, etc.). Recently, however, Symantec has noticed an increase in malicious email attacks with .htm (HTML) attachments. Here is what the message looks like in your inbox: (continue reading...) Read more
January 25, 2012 - Beginning on New Year's Eve, January 1, 2012 and continuing earlier into the days following, Symantec Intelligence identified spammers taking advantage of the New Year anniversary, seemingly to entice users into clicking on spam links contained in the email messages. Further (continue reading...) Read more
December 7, 2011 - With contributions from Manoj Venugopalan, Senior Malware Analyst, Symantec Introduction A new day and a new zero day PDF exploit used in a Targeted attack which our Skeptic heuristic engine stopped. This one exploits a vulnerability in the 3D engine in (continue reading...) Read more
December 7, 2011 - Spammers have used scare tactics in the past, notably during the swine flu outbreak in 2009. A similar spam campaign using scare tactics was observed during the weeks leading up to April 1, 2010 as an expansion of the (continue reading...) Read more
December 6, 2011 - Global spam is now at the lowest it has been since November 2008, when the rogue ISP McColo was closed-down. The effect on spam volumes back then were very dramatic and spam accounted for 68.0% of global emails. More recently (continue reading...) Read more
November 30, 2011 - A wise man once said, “Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times.” (Machiavelli). Thus, looking back at the major cyber security trends of 2011 helps us gain perspective (continue reading...) Read more
November 28, 2011 - Article contributed by Emily Liu, Symantec Security Response Technician Most of the Russian spam emails we usually encounter are about online advertising, product promotion, and training workshops. These spam emails typically are sent out unsolicited from free or hijacked personal email (continue reading...) Read more
November 21, 2011 - How does Symantec know it's the week of Thanksgiving? Because as the busiest travel day of the year day quickly approaches, the day just before Thanksgiving , there is a surge in fake email ticket confirmations that lead to viruses. Here (continue reading...) Read more
October 31, 2011 - Contributor: Anand Muralidharan Recently, the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi triggered a malware attack which Symantec previously blogged about. We have observed spammers' continued delight with this news event through the sending of malicious attack and 419 spam messages. In (continue reading...) Read more
October 11, 2011 - Contributor: Christopher Mendes When stalwarts pass away the world mourns their loss, tributes flow and emotions run high. Whenever we lose a legendary figure, their death brings shock or grief and people are hungry for any and every available piece of (continue reading...) Read more
October 7, 2011 - Contributor: Anand Muralidharan The sad news making the rounds these days is the death of Steve Jobs, Apple Co-founder and former CEO. His death has been a terrible loss to both Apple and Apple fans everywhere. Spammers are capitalizing on this incident (continue reading...) Read more