U.S. Election Becomes Hot Topic of Spam Mailshots in Q2

Woburn, MA – August 18, 2016 –Kaspersky Lab announced today that the average level of spam emails increased four percent compared to Q2 2015, according to the company’s quarterly report on Spam and Phishing. The U.S. elections, especially news about presidential candidate Donald Trump, became one of the new hot spam topics this quarter.

During the past quarter, political topics and candidates were among one of the most interesting for spammers. In these emails, spammers told their targets about Mr. Trump’s unique methods of making money and invited them to copy Mr. Trump with their own business. Users were invited to click on the link in the email to learn more, which led to a fake news portal with an article about how Mr. Trump made his money. To “start making money” themselves, users had to provide their personal information in an online form on the webpage. While the user didn’t earn any money, the cybercriminals obtained their sensitive data. The Olympic Games in Brazil, was another hot topic for the quarter with both spammers and phishers earning money from sports fans.

In Q2 2016, Facebook accounts were brought under attack with an intimate YouTube video posted on behalf of a number of compromised Facebook accounts. When trying to play the video, users were invited to install a browser plug-in. The message on the screen stated that without installing the plug-in users would not be able to watch the video. Yet, after installation, the malicious plug-in received the right to read all data in the browser, including saved passwords, logins, credit card details and other confidential information.

There was an unusual anomaly in the amount of malicious spam traffic in Q2. From June 1 to June 21, company experts registered a sizable decrease in malicious spam email campaigns. At the same time, the Necurs botnet mysteriously turned down its fraudulent activities. Kaspersky Lab experts don’t have solid proof that these two events are connected, but it is likely. Several sources on the web reported that the operators behind the Necurs botnet experienced some technical issues resulting in an outage. These problems were apparently quickly fixed, as after June 21, the malicious spam email flow recovered, along with the botnet operations.

“Spammers are quite frequently trying to use breaking news and speculate on famous people,” said Daria Gudkova, spam analysis expert, Kaspersky Lab. “Users should be aware of this and remain vigilant in order to mitigate their risk. We also see that social networks are highly attractive for spammers and phishers. If one of your friends is starting to behave differently online and sending provocative links or even tag you or one of your friends under suspicious posts, it’s likely their account has been compromised. Do not click on those links and do not install any software that the system might suggest. Common sense can prevent nearly all infections of this type. In addition, think twice before opening attachments in emails, the risk of infection to your computer is very high.”

Other notable figures in Q2 include:

• The U.S. retained its position as the biggest source of spam, sending 10.79 percent of unwanted emails. Nevertheless, the percentage of spam email campaigns from this country is constantly decreasing. In Q2 2015, for example, it equaled 14.59 percent.
• With 10.10 percent of spam emails campaigns sent from Vietnam, this country took second place in the source of spam ranking, followed by India (10.01 percent). The same quarter in 2015 showed a completely different picture, when Russia (7.82 percent) took second place and China came in third with 7.14 percent of the world’s spam.
• Germany retained its position as the country most targeted by malicious mailshots with 14.69 percent of Kaspersky Lab product users in the country receiving spam emails in their mailboxes. In Q2 2015, Germany was also at the top of the list with 19.59 percent.
• Germany was followed by China (13.6 percent) and Japan (6.4 percent). The same quarter in 2015 was also led by Germany, followed by Great Britain (6.31 percent) and Brazil settled in third place (6.04 percent).
• The Anti-Phishing system was triggered 32,363,492 times on the computers of Kaspersky Lab users. In Q2 2015, the system was triggered 30,807,071 times, which is almost a 5 percent increase.
• The largest percentage of users affected by phishing attacks was in China (20.22 percent) followed by Brazil (18.63 percent) and Algeria (14.3 percent). It is worth noting that the percentage of affected users in Q2 2015 was lower, the top three countries were: Brazil (9.74 percent), India (8.3 percent) and China (7.23 percent). The numbers doubled compared to the same quarter of 2015.

In order to stay safe and not fall into fraudsters’ traps, we encourage you to stay wise while you are online. Do not click on unknown links and do not allow the installation of any plugins from suspicious online recourses. In addition, do not disable the Anti-Phishing and Anti-Spam components on your security solutions.

Read the full Spam and Phishing Report in Q2 2016 at Securelist.com.

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is one of the world’s fastest-growing cybersecurity companies and the largest that is privately-owned. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users (IDC, 2014). Since 1997 Kaspersky Lab has been an innovator in cybersecurity and provides effective digital security solutions and threat intelligence for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab is an international company, operating in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 400 million users worldwide.

Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

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Media Contact:
Jennifer Wood
781.503.2676
jennifer.wood@kaspersky.com