The Hindu Business Line : Experts predict surge in spam during festival season

New Delhi, Oct. 12 Cyber-security experts foresee nearly 20 per cent spike in spam messages in the run-up to Diwali, as spammers attempt to cash-in on the festival season to clutter inboxes with spams embedded with trojans, Keyloggers and other malware (malicious software).

“During Diwali, we expect to see a sharp rise in spam, with spammers sending promotional and marketing material, and in certain cases pushing malware payloads. Clicking on these messages or downloading attachments that come with the mails could set-off viruses, offering hackers access to personal details including confidential bank account or credit card information,” said Mr Shantanu Ghosh, Vice-President (India Product Operations), Symantec Software, whose latest report has ranked India sixth in the list of top spam originating countries.

Spam — junk or unsolicited e-mails sent by a third party — are annoying to recipients and administrators, and cause loss of service or degradation in performance of network resources and e-mail gateways. But more importantly, spam poses a serious IT security risk as it can be used to deliver trojans, viruses, and phishing attempts.

Past tricks

In the past, spammers have been known to take advantage of user interest surrounding events such as the US Presidential election and Beijing Olympics to lure unsuspecting e-mail users. Festivals such as Christmas too have been a big draw for spammers.

“Under the guise of sending greetings, spammers try to trick users into opening mails with malware and links to phishing sites. Internet users tend to be less suspicious of mail from an unknown source during festival season. Also, this is the time when Netizens looking to shop online are more susceptible to opening mails that promise discounts and freebies, while in reality it could be unleashing malware onto the PC,” Mr Kartik Shahani, Regional Director (India and SAARC), McAfee Inc, said.

Volume tab

Trend Micro’s country manager (India and SAARC), Mr Niraj Kaushik pointed out that while it is difficult to quantify the exact numbers, spam volumes could surge nearly 20 per cent during Diwali.

“Internet users need to ensure that they do not click on attachments in e-mails that seem suspicious and where the sender is unfamiliar. In addition, it is important to not only install security software but also update it regularly,” Mr Ghosh of Symantec Software added.

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