Spammers got busy when Michael Jackson died
LAS VEGAS -- When Michael Jackson died on June 25, his fans mourned — and cybercriminals swung into action.
Within 38 hours, they forged alliances with familiar partners to trigger global spam campaigns that capitalized on the singer's death.
That was a potent reminder of the dangers that computer-savvy lawbreakers pose in a world that increasingly depends on the Internet for communications and commerce.
"Cybercriminals hunt prey with a velocity that's impossible for legitimate businesses to match," says Patrick Peterson, Cisco chief security officer.
The attacks after Jackson's death will be fresh on the minds of about 4,000 corporate managers gathering Wednesday to discuss cybercrime defenses at the annual Black Hat Vegas security conference.
"The bad guys are very adept at using Internet technologies," says Dave Marcus, director of research and communications at anti-virus firm McAfee. "And unlike the good guys, they aren't restrained by any laws or jurisdictional boundaries."
Like most large-scale cyberattacks, the Jackson spamming runs were carried out by about a dozen elite crime gangs. Each controls networks of hundreds of thousands of infected home and workplace PCs, called bots, which they lease to clients who want to carry out scams.
Longstanding clients include sellers of non-certified pharmaceutical drugs, herbal remedies, replica designer goods and worthless anti-virus subscriptions. Their hard drives brim with e-mail and website marketing material and software to carry out online sales.
They attract attention by referring to headline news, including the election of President Obama, the swine flu outbreak — and celebrity deaths.
"They have templates ready so all they have to do is plug in words relating to a specific event," says John Harrison, director of Symantec's security response team.
So they were all set on the Thursday afternoon when news about Jackson's death began to spread.
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