Cybersecurity
E-Mail Spam Goes Artisanal
Scammers are turning to small-batch attacks to beat today’s more sophisticated e-mail filters.
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When a group of hackers sought to steal iTunes passwords from Apple customers in France, they didn't spam the entire country. They sent out just 5,000 e-mails to French-speaking targets containing links to a fake login page.
The attack, which took place in October, was a success, at least by spamming standards. Most of the e-mails found their way to their intended recipients' inboxes, a rare occurrence with today's sophisticated spam filters. Agari Data, a cyber-security company that tracked the incident, said more spammers are adopting this kind of small-batch approach in the hopes of breaking through junk-mail blocking software.