Blech.
According to e-mail security firm Commtouch Software, nearly all e-mail sent in the third quarter was spam, with the number of spam messages distributing malicious worms, viruses and other harmful software rising eight percent.
And the hackers trying to infect your PC are using more subtle methods than ever before.
Commtouch said the old method of simply attaching the virus to the spam message is giving way to uninfected messages that contain links to Web sites that download the malicious software to the user’s computer.
For example, Commtouch said that the start of the NFL football season coincided with a rise in spam messages purporting to offer access to a free Web site where fans could track their favorite teams and players.
But the entire site was a hoax, designed solely to entice unsuspecting users into downloading malware.
The reason this approach is becoming more popular is that traditional e-mail filters have gotten pretty good at recognizing and quarantining messages with embedded viruses.
But there’s no way for the filters to tell what Web links lead to legitimate sites and which lead to infected sites, so they all get through.
You can read the entire report online, but I think the bottom line is that individual users are going to have to take more responsibility for safeguarding their machines.
Until automatic filtering software gets a lot smarter, you’re going to need to be much more diligent about the links you click on, the attachments you open and the software you download.
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