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Predicting Malware

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the seasonal-malice dept.

Pseudonymous B*ard writes "SANS has an interesting article showing how to predict what forms future malware will take. For example, last year there were many hurricane-related scams, while this year, another bad hurricane season is predicted. SANS has noticed that the scammers are gearing up for this and that many new domains with the words Alberto, Beryl, donation, and hurricane have been registered (Alberto & Beryl are the first two names on the hurricane list). The only question now is whether hackers will be able to preempt any of these scams before they have a chance to be used?"

6 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Hurricane scams... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    SANS has noticed that the scammers are gearing up for this and that many new domains with the words Alberto, Beryl, donation, and hurricane have been registered (Alberto & Beryl are the first two names on the hurricane list).

    This wouldn't be a problem if the Federal government wasn't in such a hurry to shovel cash out the door everytime there's a natural disaster to some politician's poll numbers.

    1. Re:Hurricane scams... by corbettw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This wouldn't be a problem if the Federal government wasn't in such a hurry to shovel cash out the door everytime there's a natural disaster to some politician's poll numbers.

      Bzzzt! Wrong! This is about scammers tricking Mr. and Mrs. Citizen to send them money "to help hurricane victims". It has nothing to do with money the Feds may, or may not, send out.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  2. Oblig. by Odin_Tiger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Obligatory grammar post.
    "Last year X, while this year X again." "And" for pete sakes. If you are comparing two things which are the same in nature but different in time, it should be "and". "While" would be used if, say, it was hurricanes last year and earthquakes this year (i.e., things which are different in their nature).

    --
    Unpleasantries.
  3. Re:Big Surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yeah, but in this case, it has to be pretty clear that the people who registered the domains have nefarious intent, so it might not be unreasonable to get them shut down early. Or at least blacklist 'em somehow (e.g. blacklist the URLs in your spam filters).

    Unless, perhaps, your name is Alberto.

  4. Why do a few domains imply malware??? by WoTG · · Score: 2, Insightful

    IMHO, the far more likely purpose of registering domains related to the next hurricane names are simply for SPAM. When the hurricanes hit, tens of thousands of people will mistype or find some other way of ending up on what I expect will be plain old ad serving pages. Considering the miniscule costs of setting this up, I'd suspect that it would make a few bucks. Especially compared to some of the other ad based domains I've stumbled on in the past...

  5. Say what? by Omega+Blue · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am not sure about you, but to me malware is clearly distinct from e-mail scams.

    Malware is a program that do nasty things to your computer. e-mail scams have nothing to do with that.