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India replaces United States as the top spam sender
 During
the third quarter of 2011, the threat landscape saw great shifts, replacements,
as well as continued cybercriminal efforts. The nature of the attacks seen in
the past quarter mostly dealt with software vulnerabilities and different threat
infection vectors. This signified possible changes in cybercriminal strategy.
First off, Google replaced Microsoft as the software vendor
with the greatest number of reported vulnerabilities for the quarter—82.
This is due to the increasing number of vulnerabilities found in Chrome,
which continues to grow in popularity. Oracle came in second place, with 63
vulnerabilities, while Microsoft fell to third place with 58 vulnerabilities.
Furthermore, the United States, which normally takes the top spot in the list
of spam-sending countries dropped out of the top 10 list and was replaced by
India at 12% and South Korea at 9%. South Korea has earlier expressed willingness
to take action in order to reduce the spamming activity in their country
by blocking port 25 on a nation wide level.
Amit Nath Country Manager India and SAARC Trend Micro says "we also
witnessed a significant shift in terms of cybercriminal attack targets. The
attacks have changed from being massive in nature—those aimed at affecting
as many users as possible, to targeted, particularly those against large enterprises
and government institutions". Research conducted by Trend Micro researchers
on these attacks led them to the discovery of one of the most notable groups
behind targeted attacks in the third quarter— the LURID downloader.
He further added "Attacks against well-known platforms such as mobile devices
and social networks ensued. A new DreamDroidLight variant with enhanced capabilities
and routines was also spotted in the third quarter. In addition, attacks targeting Facebook and Google+ led
users to scams and malicious file downloads".
The security industry also witnessed a couple of wins during the quarter, with
the discovery of a SpyEye cybercrime ring led by a cybercriminal named “Soldier” as
well as of several FAKEAV affiliate networks.
From the looks of it, the trends seen during the third quarter are already taking
place halfway into the fourth quarter, with the addition of attacks leveraging
the holidays. Attackers will further hone their attacks to target specific entities
and will continue leveraging mobile platforms and social media. If the information
revealed by the Esthost takedown is any indication of the kinds of
threats that users are set to encounter, then it is critical for users to prepare
for the future to prevent being victimized by such threats.
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