Spam continued at alarmingly high levels in 2010 despite the dismantling of botnets such as Mariposa or Bredolad, which prevented these zombie computers from sending spam. In 2009, around 95% of all e-mail traffic globally was spam. In 2010, the figure dropped to an average of 85%, with about 50% of all spam being sent from just 20 countries.
Pharmaceuticals continued to be the most popular subject of junk mail, followed by messages promoting fake designer products. Phishing messages designed to obtain online bank details and the like, as well as other fraud-oriented traffic increased as a percentage of the total.
2010 also saw some major new innovations in spam, including campaigns exploiting new ruses designed to infect users. Such was the case with an e-mail designed to look like a message from the iTunes Store, perfectly imitating official communications from the store.
2010 Security Threats in Review
2010 was an intense year for threats, and many issues shook the world of IT security. The dismantling of the Mariposa botnet, the “Here you Have” worm –an attack claimed by the Iraqi resistance-, 0-Day vulnerability exploits, Stuxnet and the attack on nuclear plants (SCADA systems), the Rainbow or OnMouseOver worm on Twitter, hijacking of the Facebook “Like” button, Android threats (such as FakePlayer), the launch of cyber activism led by Anonymous, Wikileaks… In short, a year full of security-related events of all shapes and sizes.
This slideshows highlights Panda Security’s report on security threats in 2010.
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