Earlier this year, I posted an example of a ridiculously contrived attempt to propagate malware. For as amateurish as that one was, this one is the exact opposite: a very clever and convincing ruse. The message purports to be courtesy of an Adobe “Risk Management” official, referencing a known Acrobat exploit, and urging the application of a patch. What made it quasi-legit was not the fact that it came from Adobe, but that it came as a simulated mail thread from company VP to company VP, ultimately addressing an end-user by name and directing her to take action. I am not a malware expert and did not deconstruct the PDF or EXE to know if or what was infected, but it all seemed suspicious enough to me…
Tag: phishing
Internet Speed
In 2004, the average time for an unprotected computer to get infected with malware was 20 minutes. In 2006, that dropped to 12. These days, it can be measured in seconds. But that metric is typically focused on Windows PCs exploited by virii and bot-nets. What about other platforms like Linux? Anecdotal evidence suggests that it is truly a scary world out there for everyone.