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Malware Now Propagates Primarily via E-mail

  • Viruses once took years to spread; now take hours
  • "Friends and Family viruses" (actually Trojan horse/worm programs) spread by exploiting existing relationships
  • Most common in 3Q 2000: Hybris, Sircam.
  • Most infect Windows
  • Some malware carries a destructive payload
  • Can easily overload mail systems
  • Buffer overflow and active content exploits pose serious threats to users' systems and privacy
  • New threat: "Web bugs" in e-mail