MessageLabs’ September intelligence report has highlighted “geek speak” as the new wave of social engineering techniques being used to send spam.According to MessageLabs, hidden keywords such as .Net, cpan, xss and Java hidden within the body of text can trick Bayesian filters into thinking the message is anything other than spam.MessageLabs Chief Technology Officer Mark Sunner said spam based on geek speak is just another way the bad guys are evolving. Sunner said he expects to see an increase in other targeted spam; for example, accountants could be targeted by using financial terminology. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe The report, released this week, also discovered levels of virus and trojan malware has been declining when current figures are compared to the same quarter last year. Israel won the less-than-impressive title of being the world’s top spam target, with spam representing some 73.6 percent of all e-mail traffic. Australia was the country least affected by viruses, according to the report.Spam directed toward Ireland increased 1.7 percent to 64.2 percent, and India was found to be the least spammed country (25 percent of all mail), a dramatic decrease from this time last year. In the third quarter of 2005, India suffered an 81.69 percent spam rate. The report states phishing attacks increased 0.27 percent in September worldwide when compared to August last year, with one in 170 e-mails being phishing-related. As a proportion of all e-mail-borne malicious code, phishing e-mails rose 21.7 percent, accounting for 52.4 percent of malicious e-mails found by MessageLabs in September.Adam Biviano, Trend Micro premium services manager, said using “geek speak” within the body of e-mails is yet another example of spammers adapting techniques to combat spam engines.Biviano said if the spam engines failed to look deeply into the body of those e-mails, it is possible they may not look like spam.“You can adapt engines to make sure they analyze ‘technical’ looking e-mails to a greater extent, like putting the language used in context to the block of text around it so you are not looking just for content but context,” Biviano said.“If the e-mail still appears grammatically correct, it is possible it is legitimate and will be marked so.”-Michael Crawford, Computerworld Australia Related Links: Pump-and-Dump Spam Turns Subliminal Blended Antispam Blocks Out RivalsCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content opinion The changing face of cybersecurity threats in 2023 Cybersecurity has always been a cat-and-mouse game, but the mice keep getting bigger and are becoming increasingly harder to hunt. By Dipti Parmar Sep 29, 2023 8 mins Cybercrime Security brandpost Should finance organizations bank on Generative AI? Finance and banking organizations are looking at generative AI to support employees and customers across a range of text and numerically-based use cases. By Jay Limbasiya, Global AI, Analytics, & Data Management Business Development, Unstructured Data Solutions, Dell Technologies Sep 29, 2023 5 mins Artificial Intelligence brandpost Embrace the Generative AI revolution: a guide to integrating Generative AI into your operations The CTO of SAP shares his experiences and learnings to provide actionable insights on navigating the GenAI revolution. By Juergen Mueller Sep 29, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence feature 10 most in-demand generative AI skills Gen AI is booming, and companies are scrambling to fill skills gaps by hiring freelancers to make the most of the technology. These are the 10 most sought-after generative AI skills on the market right now. By Sarah K. White Sep 29, 2023 8 mins Hiring Generative AI IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe