Email Spam has returned! Well, technically, it never left us, but there was a sharp increase in the level of email spam in the last few months. The spam levels in 2016 are bigger than they’ve been in five years. We may have to deal with a huge wave of Locky ransomware in the incoming months.
Spam Spike – A new Wave of Infection
Talos reported the recent increase in spam activities. The study looked at spam levels in the last ten years. The peak of spam operations happened in 2010. Thanks to anti-spam measures and the takedown of spam botnets, there was a significant drop in the past five years. The activity was unusually low. That’s no longer the case.
According to Talos, the sharp spike in spam activity is due to the Necurs botnet. Necurs is a massive bot network that’s used to spread all sorts of malware. The botnet is most famous for infecting users with Locky. Necurs is an on-and-off botnet. Usually, it’s very active, infecting many PC, and at other times, the botnet halts all activity for certain periods of time. The longest Necurs hiatus lasted for three weeks until the botnet returned and started sending spam all over again.
Spam, Necurs, and Locky
The main focus of our site is to provide information about all cyber security problems. One of the most common threats to regular users is ransomware. The growing size of spam attacks can only lead to more infections. Ransomware viruses are primarily distributed by email spam letters that contain malicious attachments.
Locky is one of the most successful viruses in the ransomware subcategory of malware. The virus appeared in early 2016, and it remains strong as of now. Nine months is a pretty long life for a virus. Locky constantly evolves. Recently, the ransomware started using a new Trojan downloader known as Quant Loader. Back is August, Locky started using
DLL files to infect PCs. The virus is very dangerous, and the new wave of spam isn’t going to help matters.
An Excerpt From The Spam Report:
“ Restoration plans need to be regularly reviewed and tested to ensure no mistakes have been made and that items have not been overlooked.”
As Talos advises, backups are the best way to protect data from ransomware attacks.
