‘Tis the season to be jolly, but it is also the season for holiday email spam. Malware infections increase during holiday periods and this year is unlikely to be any different. Holiday email spam is coming, and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been naughty or nice. If you do not take precautions, you are likely to receive a gift of malware this Christmastime.
Holiday email scams are sent in the billions at this time of year because of one simple fact: They work. People let their hair down over Christmas and New Year, but they also let their guard down. That gives online criminals an opportunity to get malware installed, fool consumers with phishing campaigns, and generally cause some festive mayhem.
Holiday email spam is now being sent: Avoid the Christmas rush and get your malware now!
Christmas week may see many people infected with malware, but the run up to Christmas can be even worse. As soon as the first decorations go up in the shops, holiday email spam starts to be sent. Email is commonly used to send malware.
Nasty malicious programs are masked as Christmas screensavers, phishing campaigns will appear as festive quizzes, and you can expect an African prince to need your assistance with a huge bank transfer. Don’t be surprised to find out that you have won a Sweepstake in a country you have never visited or that one of your online accounts will be hacked requiring you to receive technical support.
These and many more scams will be delivered in a wave of holiday email spam and, if you let your guard down, you may inadvertently fall for one of these often cleverly devised scams. Some of the latest phishing scams are incredibly convincing, and you may not even realize you have fallen for the scam and have become a victim.
Employers Beware: End users are especially gullible at this time of year
Everyone must be wary at this time of year due to the huge increase in spam email campaigns. Employers especially must take care as employees can be particularly gullible at this time of year. Their minds are on other things, and they are not as diligent and security conscious as they may usually be.
To make matters worse, each year the scammers get better and holiday email spam becomes more believable. If one of your employees falls for holiday email spam attack, it may not only be their own bank account that gets emptied. Phishing campaigns are devised to get employees to reveal critical business data or login credentials. The FBI has warned that business email is being targeted. In the past two years over 7,000 U.S. firms have been targeted and have suffered from criminal attacks. Those attacks initially target employees, and the festive season is an ideal time for a business email compromise (BEC) attack to take place.
Common Holiday Email Spam Campaigns in 2015
Send an email bulletin to your employees highlighting the risk that holiday email spam poses, and warn them that they may shortly start receiving phishing emails and other spam campaigns. They are likely to have forgotten how risky the festive season can be.
Business Email Compromise (BEC) Attacks
The FBI has already released a warning this year to organizations that perform wire transfers on a regular basis and/or work with foreign suppliers. They are being targeted by cybercriminals using sophisticated scams that start with the compromising of a business email account. Social engineering and phishing tactics are used to get employees to reveal their login credentials. Once access to bank accounts has been obtained by criminals, fraudulent transfers are made. Holiday email spam campaigns are expected to be sent targeting organizations and specific employees within those organizations. During the holiday period employees must be told to be ultra-cautious.
Holiday e-card scams
Holiday e-card scams are common at Christmastime. Criminals take advantage of the growing popularity of e-cards and send out spam emails in the millions telling the recipient to click a link to download their e-card. However, those links are sent to convince users to download malware to their computers. Any email containing a file attachment claiming to be an e-card is likely to be fake. The attachment may be malware.
Holiday-themed screensavers
Christmas and other holiday-themed screensavers are commonly downloaded by employees. These screensavers can be fun and festive, but may actually be malicious. Employers should consider implementing a ban on the downloading of screensavers as a precaution. Staff members should be warned that any .scr file sent in an email should be treated with suspicion and not downloaded or installed. Criminals mask attachments and the .scr file may actually be an executable file that installs malware.
Ashley Madison revelations and TalkTalk scams
A number of major data breaches have been suffered this year that have resulted in customer data being exposed. Criminals are threatening to expose personal data, especially in the case of Ashley Madison clients. Emails are sent threatening breach victims, informing them that they must pay not to have their data posted on the internet. Some criminals will be in possession of the data; other scams will be speculative. If an email is received, it is essential that professional advice is sought before any action is taken.
If you receive an email asking you to take action to secure your account after a company you use has suffered a data breach – TalkTalk for example – it is essential to only change your password via the official website. Do not click on links contained in emails. They may be phishing scams.
Free Star Wars tickets
You can guarantee that such a major event for moviegoers will be the subject of multiple email spam campaigns. Criminals would not pass up the opportunity to take advantage of the release of a new Star Wars film.
There are likely to be competitions aplenty, free tickets offered, and many other Star Wars spam campaigns in the run up to the release. This is the biggest movie release of the year for many people. Fans of the films are excited. They want to see snippets of the film, read gossip, and find out if Luke Skywalker will actually be in the new film. Many people are likely to fall for scams and click phishing links or inadvertently install malware.
Get prepared this holiday season and you can keep your computer and network spam and malware free. Fail to take action and this holiday time is unlikely to be jolly. Quite the opposite in fact.