Quick Bytes: Cloak of Legitimacy

Cybercriminals are increasingly launching attacks from legitimate Web sites and e-mail addresses, according to Cisco Systems’ annual security report. Threats coming from legitimate sites increased 90 percent in 2008, almost twice the rate of growth from the prior year.

There was also an increase in attacks from legitimate Web mail addresses. Almost 8 percent of e-mail traffic on the top three Web mail platforms were from valid but hijacked e-mail addresses. One reason for this increase is growing sophistication of botnets, which are networks of secretly hijacked computers. In some cases, they’ve been able to automatically hack into Web accounts with weak passwords and e-mail all the Web addresses listed in an account’s address book.