A new type of threat: audio spam
Spammers are utilizing a technique that has been virtually unheard of in the past. This week, spam monitors observed an extremely high increase in spam messages containing .mp3 files, which now constitutes about 10% of all the malicious email traffic. Although new, such phenomenon is not surprising, considering that during the last six months, security experts have observed cybercriminals utilizing several file formats that are not blocked by spam filters, which allowed spammers to evade filtering.
Not only do the new spam messages deliver mp3′s. They’re personalized. Although it is not clear yet how spammers do it, but the mp3 file names that they are spreading across the Web range from deadsong.mp3 to coolringtone.mp3. When opened, the files play a penny stock message, urging a user to invest into some obscure company. The voice is unpleasant, if creepy, as it is generated or altered beyond recognition, and sounds like some 80s robotic machinery gone postal (remember HAL from Space Odyssey? Not even close).
Such spam, although numerous, is not likely to be effective, as the amount of required user response is too high. However, such new spam techniques might indicate that there may be an influx of more sophisticated spam in the future.
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