Bangkok--18 Jan--Oasis Media
Report highlights
- Spam — 68.8 percent (an increase of 4.0 percentage points since October)
- Phishing — One in 445.1 emails identified as phishing (a decrease of 0.124 percentage points since October)
- Malware — One in 255.8 emails contained malware (an decrease of 0.05 percentage points since October)
- Malicious websites — 1,847 websites blocked per day (an increase of 97.9 percent since October)
- A look at identities lost in data breaches
- Spam as a holiday tradition
At first glance, what may seem surprising is that a person’s real name is by far the most common item to be stolen in a data breach, where it is obtained 55% of the time. This surpasses even usernames and passwords, most commonly used for online identities, which appears within 40% of all data breaches. This points to a trend where hackers are targeting locations people go to complete tasks, in contrast to years past where breaches may have occurred with more frequency through message boards or online games. These former hot-spots would have been less likely to include a user’s real name, often only requiring an alias for a user name.
In contrast, more than 80% of data breaches that are occurring this year are with organizations whose Internet presence is secondary to their main business, such as the healthcare and education sectors, where online access to services is often set up as a means of convenience instead of a business front. Viewing a website as an auxiliary service may mean laxer security, making them easier targets for data breaches.
What is concerning is that government-issued ID numbers, such as Social Security numbers, are still stolen in so many data breaches. While storing this information would make sense for some sectors such as accounting or healthcare, where knowing such numbers is a necessity, in many cases these numbers are being stolen from organizations that really have no direct need of it. It may be time for consumers, when asked to provide a Social Security number, to being asking the organization just why they need it, and if an alternate identifying number can be provided instead.
Spam: A holiday tradition
with contributions by Nicholas Johnston
We have seen an increase in spam messages with file sizes 10kb or larger. These bigger emails are up 21 percent, from 17.3 percent in October to 38.3 percent of all spam email in November. While our first thoughts were that this could be the result of an increase in image spam, with emails designed to appeal to holiday shoppers, we found that the increases could be attributed to a malware run during the month.
Global Trends & Content Analysis
Spam Analysis
In November, the global ratio of spam in email traffic rose by 4.0 percentage point since October, to 68.8 percent (1 in 1.45 emails).
Global Spam Categories
The most common category of spam in November is related to the Sex/Dating category, with 57.72 percent.
Spam URL Distribution based on Top Level Domain Name
The proportion of spam exploiting URLs in the .com top-level domain increased in November, as highlighted in the table below. This is in line with a slight increase in .com top-level domains this month
Average Spam Message Size
In November, the proportion of spam emails that were 5Kb in size or less decreased by 5.0 percentage points. Furthermore, the proportion of spam messages that were greater than 10Kb in size increased by 21 percent.
Spam Attack Vectors
November highlights the decrease in spam emails resulting in NDRs (spam related non-delivery reports). In these cases, the recipient email addresses are invalid or bounced by their service provider. The proportion of spam that contained a malicious attachment or link increased, with periodic spikes of spam activity during the period.
Phishing Analysis
In November, the global phishing rate decreased by 0.124 percentage points, taking the global average rate to one in 445.1 emails (0.225 percent) that comprised some form of phishing attack.
Malware Analysis
Email-borne Threats
The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic was one in 255.8 emails (0.391 percent) in November, a decrease of 0.05 percentage points since October.
In November, 13.0 percent of email-borne malware contained links to malicious websites, 10.6 percentage points lower than October.
Endpoint Security Threats
For much of 2012, variants of W32.Sality.AE2 and W32.Ramnit3 had been the most prevalent malicious threats blocked at the endpoint. Variants of W32.Ramnit accounted for approximately 15.0% of all malware blocked at the endpoint in November, compared with 7.2 percent for all variants of W32.Sality.
Approximately 10.2 percent of the most frequently blocked malware last month was identified and blocked using generic detection. Many new viruses and Trojans are based on earlier versions, where code has been copied or altered to create a new strain, or variant.
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