Audio Spam: The Latest Twist on a Never-Ending Security Threat
Researchers say that small MP3 attachments pitching penny stocks are the latest wave in the ocean of unsolicited e-mail.
Still, these tactics tend to evolve from crude to sophisticated rapidly. Stewart acknowledges this could simply be a test run for a better audio spam attack in the future. He also notes that there didn't appear to be any malware packed into the audio file that would download onto a PC, but that "feature" could certainly be added.
Also, regardless of how many people fall for it, MP3 spam presents a more basic problem: bandwidth consumption in transit. As spam evolves to take advantage of bigger files, it chews up more bandwidth just trying to get to its destination. This was a significant problem when image and PDF spam peaked, and researchers now report that MP3 spam is arriving as even bigger files than image spam.
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