Even with mobile phones now being an essential part of our lives, I am still not used to receiving text message spam. Hence, I was kind of excited when I recently received one on my private number. The claim was that I had won something from Apple. The spam was sent from a number in Virginia, +1 540 514 [REMOVED], and it looks like the scam is currently run in a few different countries.
 

Figure 1. Swiss German version of scam text message
 

If you click on the link, which you obviously should not do, you will end up at a site that tells you that your gift is a brand new iPhone 5. All you have to do is enter the winning code that you received in the text message. The text is badly written with several spelling errors, just like in the old...

It is more than a month until Christmas, but spammers are all set to spam the vacation season. We have observed Christmas related spam messages flowing into the Symantec Probe Network.

For greeting card spam, spammers used a legitimate look and feel in the email with headers (Subject & From) and flash animations that included a message to open the "Christmas Card.zip" attachment. After opening the attachment, the malicious code is downloaded on to the user's system. Symantec detects the attachment as W32/AutoRun.BBC!worm.
 

Figure 1. Christmas card example
 

As expected, spammers are promoting fake offers by targeting specific categories, including:

• Products
• Health
• Internet
• Finances
• Replicas

We regularly access computers in order to help with all manner of our daily activities. Indeed, many of us have come to depend on them, storing important files and documents for work and leisure. Imagine a scenario where you find that you can no longer use your computer, or imagine you are coming up to an important deadline and find that you are denied access to that important document you were working on. Suppose that a solution is offered to restore access, but for a fee. Would you pay? Should you pay?

Ransomware is a problem that has been with us for several years, but this year Symantec has seen a substantial growth in the sheer number and variety of this particular type of malware. This recent explosion in ransomware is most likely the result of existing cyber-criminal gangs realizing the revenue-generating power of the ransomware business model. The premise is simple and straightforward, take away something important to a user and demand cash for its return.

To...

A few days ago, researchers from North Carolina State University published a video demonstrating how an app can simulate the reception of a text message from a spoofed source. SMS spoofing can be used for a number of malicious intentions, including SMS phishing attacks (SMSishing), which could trick someone into providing banking credentials or subscribing to paid services.

The code to perform this action has been publicly documented and in use since August, 2010. However, we have not yet found any instances that use the code for an SMSishing attack. Instead, the vast majority of apps use the code to deliver advertisements, including a couple hundred applications hosted on Google Play.

To send a spoofed SMS message there is no need to send a text message over the air. In fact, a...