Trend Micro Incorporated reported today that cybercriminals are not only leveraging new technologies to propagate cybercrime, but are also reinventing forms of social engineering to cleverly ensnare both consumers and businesses, according to the Trend Micro Threat Roundup and Forecast 1H 2008 report. As a result, the last six months saw an upswing in Web threats, but steady decreases in adware and spyware that are generated by outdated technical methods and can no longer compete with high-level security solutions.

Exploiting Human Nature

While social engineering tactics such as the Nigerian phishing scam and the Spanish prisoner scam have been around for decades, cybercriminals continue to refresh and modernize this standard form of trickery based on whatever the trend appears to be. For example, the tools and technologies used to create the interactive nature of popular social networking sites have become useful for cybercrime. In March, over 400 phishing kits designed to generate phishing sites were targeting top Web 2.0 sites (i.e. social networking, video sharing and VoIP sites), free e-mail service providers, banks and popular e-Commerce Web sites.

Recently, a new form of phishing warned potential victims about phishing e-mails as a way to legitimize that e-mail and then tricked them into clicking on a link that leads to a fraudulent site. Spammers are also recycling old techniques. In February, Trend Micro investigated a voice phishing (aka "vishing") attempt. The message appeared convincing, with all links leading to corresponding, legitimate target pages, but included a phony number for recipients to call to reactivate their account, which had been supposedly "placed on hold." Upon calling the phone number, users were asked for their bank card number and PIN, unwittingly opening their bank accounts to the phishers.

Developing Malware for Blended Threats

Malware variants have generally been treated as separate individual threats. Today, profit-motivated Web threats blend various malicious software components into a singular Web threat business model. For example, a cyber criminal sends a message (spam) with an embedded link in the e-mail (malicious URL) or contained in an instant message. The user clicks on the link and is redirected to a Web site where a file (Trojan) automatically downloads onto the user's computer. The Trojan then downloads an additional file (spyware) that captures sensitive information, such as bank account numbers (spy-phishing). Although seemingly one incident, blended threats are much more difficult to combat and much more dangerous for the user.

Exploiting New Technologies

The fast-flux technique is an additional example of criminals abusing technology developments. Fast-flux is a domain-name-server (DNS) switching mechanism that combines peer-to-peer networking, distributed command and control, Web-based load-balancing, and proxy redirection to hide phishing delivery sites. Fast-flux helps phishing sites stay up for longer periods to lure more victims. For example, researchers are challenged to identify malicious Storm domains because developers are using fast-flux techniques to evade detection.

A Spike in Web Threats Accompanied by Decline in Adware and Keyloggers

Trend Micro witnessed a dramatic increase in Web threat activity during the first half of 2008. Web threats peaked in March to 50,000,000 from approximately 15,000,000 in December 2007.

On the decline are adware, trackware, keyloggers and freeloaders. In March 2007, the company found that approximately 45 percent of PCs were infected by adware; by April 2008, only 35 percent were reportedly infected. In May 2007, approximately 20 percent of PCs were infected by trackware; that number has dropped to less than 5 percent in April 2008. Keyloggers also showed a small, but steady decline with less than 5 percent of PCs being infected (from over 5 percent in September 2007.)

"This is a good example of how cybercriminals are evolving with the times -- they're moving away