Latest MessageLabs malware report reveals professions most at risk

 

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Posted on 26 Mar 2010 at 15:11

The latest threat report from email security firm MessageLabs includes a list of the professions most likely to be affected by targeted malware attacks – malicious programs, almost invariably designed to capture passwords and personal information, which are sent to a handful of selected individuals.

Unlike the majority of malicious emails, which are typically badly spelled and mailed out in bulk via botnets, targeted attacks are often included as an attachment in a plausible, well-written and convincingly deceptive email. They're often written specifically for the recipient and designed to obtain information that only that person has access to.

The top five most frequently targeted job roles (MessageLabs March 2010)

Unsurprisingly, in the corporate world, senior staff members are most often targeted, with company directors making the largest 8.7 per cent share, as shown in the table above. Things get a bit more interesting when you take close look at the precise job descriptions of the individuals who are most frequently victimised by these highly specific attacks.

After all the recent news coverage of attempts to hack the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, we're not exactly shocked to see that human rights activists and researchers make up a total 12.7 per cent of those targeted. We were intrigued by the cloak-and-dagger implications of the targeting of defence policy experts and diplomats, while members of highly lucrative industries like finance and music promotion are a good bet if you're trying to make away with financial information.

Individuals most frequently victimised by targeted malware (MessageLabs March 2010)

These statistics are all obtained from email attacks that were blocked by the MessageLabs commercial email filtering service, now owned by anti-malware giant Symantec.

The MessageLabs March 2010 report made a number of observations about these targeted threats:

"Continuing the theme of targeted malware used in the commission of industrial espionage, bribery or blackmail and reflecting on the research in the MessageLabs Intelligence 2009 Annual Security Report, we reported that 60 per cent of recipients were of a high or medium ranking seniority.

"It was surprisingly straightforward to identify a great deal of information about the individuals being targeted; the Internet provided plenty of information on around 84% of the individuals in most targeted attacks."

Author: Kat Orphanides