Dangerous Attachments Skyrocket: Sophos
Spam carrying dangerous attachments soared in the third quarter of this year to eight times the volume sent in the second quarter, according Sophos.
The Internet security firm reported yesterday that while an average of one in 3,333 e-mail messages contained a dangerous attachment between April and June 2008, an average of one in 416 e-mail messages contained a dangerous attachment between July and September.
Sophos attributed the rise to several large malware attacks that took place during the third quarter of 2008, the worst of which was a message disguised as a Penguin Panic arcade game for Apple iPhones. People opening these attachments exposed their computers to viruses.
The company reported it has also seen a rise in the amount of spam sent via social networking sites.
