Rise in Ransomware, spam numbers

BANGALORE,INDIA: Fortinet today announced its February 2010 Threatscape report showed strong spam activity, with one particular campaign accounting for more than half of the total volume of malware detected this period.

According to a press release in just a two-day run, HTML/Goldun.AXT, dominated spam and overall threat levels, nearing record numbers, and contributed to the explosion of ransomware. A number of other varying spam campaigns helped to elevate ransomware on the radar this period, distributing a variant known as ‘Security Tool.’ Apart from these high spam rates, overall active exploits of new vulnerabilities also remained high with 39 percent of new vulnerabilities detected in the wild.

Key threat activities for the month of February include:

·        Ransomware’s Reality: Turning Fortinet’s 2010 prediction into fact, the spread of ransomware became a reality this period with high activity through a variety of spam campaigns. Most notable was the number one chart-topping malware variant, HTML/Goldun.AXT, which works by disseminating a binary malware file that downloads the ransomware “Security Tool” and, once executed, locks up applications until a cleansing tool is purchased to restore the computer. While this example accounts for the majority of activity detected this period, the Security Tool ransomware was also distributed through SEO attacks as well. The HTML/Goldun campaign brings a new ransomware tactic to the table and ups the ante for monetary gains, but the campaign in and of itself isn’t new as the first waves were seen in late 2008, alongside the first flood of scareware that hit cyberspace.

·        Job Vacancies -- Cutwail Hired: Spam this period came in different shapes and sizes, but one thing is for sure: it came in record numbers. The culprit behind the mass distribution came from an old friend Cutwail, a botnet spam engine whose most prevalent campaigns sent scareware and ransomware through social engineering schemes. While Cutwail continues to grow with the success of its components, in this period, additional botnet binaries were linked to Cutwail, indicating Cutwail is being used as a spamming service, which ultimately multiplies the number of cybercriminals pushing out these spam campaigns.

·        Buzus and Botnets Go Berserk: While ransomware took the prize in this period’s Threatscape report, the Buzus spam Trojan and various botnets, including the infamous Bredolab, Gumbler and Sasfis, still created a stir across Fortinet’s Top 10 Malware list. One new-comer to the top 10 attack list was the Sun Java vulnerability (CVE-2009-3867), which is triggered through a malicious Java Applet by visiting a malicious website, proving that the platform is, once again, a quick and easy target for such campaigns.

“What we observed this month is that while spamming campaigns may change over time and methods of execution reworked a bit, the tried and true techniques that have proven successful in the past continue to thrive,” said Derek Manky, project manager, cyber security and threat research, Fortinet. “Spam will continue to come in new flavors, with either old binaries under a different package or a new binary code under a similar guise; and new tools, like crime-as-a-service, will continue to support the growing distribution. This gives us another reason to support a layered security approach as an imperative for getting in front of the next wave.”