I've taken a bit of heat internally because I neglected to announce last week's posting of the monthly MX Logic Threat Report and Forecast for September. The latest edition can be downloaded here.
In that report we mention our prediction that as the Democratic and Republican National Conventions concluded and as the campaign season kicks into high gear that we expected to see a continuation of some of the more recent spam tactics that have been employed where hackers were using tabloid like news headlines as a lure to get people to open malicious emails, but with a political twist. So, instead of using fake Britney Spears or Oprah headlines as a means to get unsuspecting users to view a video or news clip the movement has started toward targeting Barack Obama using similar means.
Some of the subject lines that we are currently seeing targeting Obama are:
Obama is ponstar now
Porno with Obama
Sex Video with Obama
Obama Sex Video
Barack Obama Hardcore
Barack Obama sex story with girl
Obama private porno
Barack Obama sex story with Ukrainian girl
Note that we have not yet seen any similar tactics targetting John McCain.
Volume on this tactic is currently extremely low (under 100 total have been seen thus far), but this is likely a proof of concept method that will play itself out over the next two months where more believable tactics are used by spammers. Instead of using tabloid like headlines, be on the lookout for emails containing attachments or links to sites claiming to be hosting the latest candidate television commercial or video with excerpts from a speech at their latest campaign stop.
Obviously there is a bit of a shock factor with these tabloid like headlines that grab people's attention, but since this tactic has been around for several weeks now, expect it to morph to using lures that are far more plausible in the very near future.
Posted by smasiello at 12:15 PM at MX Logic
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