Vivian Ho's blog

The five-time Grammy award winner Amy Winehouse was found dead in London on July 23rd. Symantec has already observed spammers who are trying to capitalize on related news headlines by sending out malicious threats less than a day after the news was released.

In the past couple of days, Symantec has observed a spike of email attacks that are designed to distribute malicious threats. All of the observed samples are spoofed to appear as if they are legitimate delivery warnings or notifications from UPS or Post Express.

Giving gifts for Chinese New Year is a traditional custom, not only for families but also for businesses to show their gratitude to customers. While everyone is ready to welcome the Year of the Rabbit, spammers have already provided many holiday surprises for them.

When one thinks of Christmas, an aura of emotion arises. We are reminded of our family reunions, Christmas carols, that aroma of turkey being roasted, the cakes and pastries - don’t forget the Christmas gifts! But before we can wish you a merry Christmas we would like to caution you as you prepare your Christmas shopping list.

Chinese spammers are actively involved in the upcoming celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National day. The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) will occur on September 22 this year andthe government has declared that October 1 is National Day, as thePeople's Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949.

Symantec has observed an increase in the volume of email spam with HTML attachments that contain malicious JavaScript.

In the last couple weeks, spammers masquerading as known individuals or companies sent email invitations or business notifications. The message entices recipients to open an HTML attachment.

Language spammers are quick to adapt all English spam tricks. We often see them apply various spam methods, such as the insertion of randomized characters, digits, or symbols into header and body text or the sending of spam messages as document or image attachments in order to bypass spam filters on a daily basis.

We all know spammers follow holidays and news events closely, given that spam volumes always increase before upcoming events. In the Chinese culture there are a lot of holidays based on the lunar calendar and various traditions.

As 52 countries across the world gear up to celebrate Father’s day on Sunday, June 20, Symantec is monitoring the increase in the Father’s Day spam volume since the end of May. Sadly, spammers don’t forget to send out their holiday spam, although a couple of ongoing global events such as the FIFA World Cup and Shanghai World Expo might also draw their attention.

Spammers are known to be crowd chasers. And so it goes that social networking forums, sports events, and major news-generating events always seem to catch the spammers’ attention. In line with this trait, spammers are now targeting global expos.