Malware, and Spam, and Viruses! Oh, my!

Malware, and Spam, and Viruses! Oh, my!

We have started to see a wave of spam emails containing links to sites hosting malware which are getting past the filters of even the best anti-spam services. Some of these emails have a customized subject with a claim that you need to reset your password. Here are some recent examples:

Subject: Reset your ‘domain.com’ password
Subject: Your ‘domain.com’ account information has changed
Subject: UPS INVOICE NR1234XXX

The link appears to be to your own domain, but in fact it goes to a site that attempts to install malware on your computer. We have developed a content filter for this type of spam and we have applied it to our customers already.

It is important to have multiple levels of defenses in place because no one technology can ensure 100% protection. Defending against spam, malware and viruses is a reactive process which means that any new threat will pass through for at least a few users before the identification engine learns to block it. For email and web traffic anything that passes through before these patches have been released, the damage has been done.

We are seeing more and more spam tactics like this that include links to malware or other harmful scripts designed to infiltrate your network which are not actually attached to an email message or file. In addition to being vulnerable to these types of attacks due to definitions that have not been updated, almost every spam filtering service allows you to define whitelists which are not scanned for content, however they still enforce virus scanning for attachments. These attacks are propagated in the content so your whitelist is effectively removing your protection from these types of attacks.

What you really need to do is approach the actual source of the problem which is your web browser, when instructed, it follows the harmful links and brings back any threats included on the web page. Only scanning your email for attachments is like locking the doors and then leaving the windows open.

MxToolbox has partnered with WebRoot (June Newsletter) to offer Web Filtering to protect your network from attacks through the web browser. Webroot eliminates spyware and viruses with best-of-breed scanning engines and offers a 100% guarantee. In addition to protecting against malware you have the ability to enforce web access policies and it generates detailed reports. For additional details on the protection that this program can offer, go here.

May Newsletter
Web Security with Webroot