Breaking Down Blog Spam Malware

Jesper Johansson, co-author of Windows Vista Security: Securing Vista Against Malicious Attacks, recently wrote an article in The Register which dissects a new type of threat. Anyone with a blog has probably seen blog spam- comments made on blog posts which have little or nothing to do with the actual blog post, but contain links to spam-related web sites. I have spam filters in place, so I rarely even see the blog spam posts. They are an annoyance, and I simply delete them in periodic batches. However, Jesper did stop to look at the spam and noticed that a new breed was becoming prevalent. The new breed, rather than just leading to some annoying spam site, are actually malware attacks. For a complete breakdown of the threat, and Jesper's dissection and analysis, check out Anatomy of a Malware Scam. One defense to protect yourself from being victimized by malware attacks like this one is to never close pop-up windows. Take a look at Don't Close That Pop-Up Window! to learn more.