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Personalized Spam Rising Sharply, Study Finds

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the no-i-don't-want-a-yearbook dept.

designperfection9 writes "A new study by Cisco Systems Inc. found an alarming increase in the amount of personalized spam, which online identity thieves create using stolen lists of e-mail addresses or other poached data about their victims, such as where they went to school or which bank they use."

2 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. 30% of all Web traffic? by alain94040 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the article:

    The latest study was based in part on [Cisco's] ability to monitor 30 percent of all Web and e-mail traffic

    I hope the journalist misunderstood something, otherwise all my fears about the NSA just got crunched.

    --
    iPhone Apps review site looking for bilingual testers

  2. Re:What bothers me more is by xaxa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A bigger problem is when you can't provide a decent, random string for the "security question". I opened a bank account online last week, but had to go to a branch to prove my identity (fair enough). The banker didn't like where her PC said I'd put "438@@/arcCHK" as my mother's maiden name, and asked for a real name. I'm waiting for the online banking activation codes to come through, I hope it doesn't depend on this value.