IT'S the festive season, and while the Christmas spirit is spreading, so is spam.
Opportunistic cyber-criminals are capitalising on the holiday spirit to launch malware attacks, said a report released yesterday by IT security firm Symantec.
As legitimate mailers on special festive deals are being sent out, spammers are happily following suit. According to Symantec, spammers have given their strategy a new spin by using subject headlines such as "Spend less this Christmas" and "Best sales 2008" to lure unwary netizens to open e-mail messages containing malware.
And, with the world closely following news about the Mumbai terrorist attacks, e-mailmessages on this issue that contain product advertisements or hide malicious links are also spreading, said the report.
A Symantec spokesman told my paper: "We have received global reports of spam displaying headlines on theMumbai attacks, with completely unrelated content inside."
Another report, released yesterday by IT security firm Sophos, said Apple Mac users are increasingly susceptible to malware.
With Apple announcing record sales for the fourth quarter and more people switching to Mac, crooks will target these users, said Sophos.
The use of Intel-based chips in Mac hardware has also made Macs more vulnerable to Windows malware.
This is ironic as Apple has had a history of running tongue-in-cheek advertisements that claim Mac users do not have to worry about malicious software.
But, in a move that made the Internet community sit up, Apple issued an advisory for a few days last month urging customers to run anti-virus software.
