Spammers Targeting CEOs

from the sneaky,-sneaky dept

Mon, Jul 2nd 2007 6:49am — Mike Masnick

Apparently, late last week there was a well-coordinated spam attack directed at senior executives at various companies. The spam was personally addressed to CEOs, CIOs and CFOs among others, and contained an attachment to what was supposed to be an invoice, but what was actually a trojan horse program to hide on the network. The purpose, obviously, is corporate espionage, but it's interesting to see that spammers figure that the higher up they aim, the more likely they are to get a hit -- especially with the various stories about senior execs at big companies who still don't quite understand how email works. Of course, it's not clear that anyone has actually fallen for this yet -- so it's unclear if the targeting is effective (or if we'd ever know if it turned out to work). In the meantime, it is interesting to see spam scams become increasingly more sophisticated (and personalized).

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James, 2 Jul 2007 @ 7:14am

Actually...
... it would be alot more interesting to see spammers taken into the street and beaten to a bloody pulp. :-P
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2007 @ 8:22am

Spammer vs MAFFIA?
Id like to see spammers doing something worthwhile and spamming the RIAA and MPAA. I dont care that im endorsing them, I hate spammers but I hate those two more.
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Overcast, 2 Jul 2007 @ 8:29am

Yeah, most CEO's are quite brainless when it comes to technology. Not all - but many will just say "I don't care what you do, I just need my email to work".

Then the rest of the damn IT department devotes 3 employees to making sure the CEO never gets spam while he visits porn sites half the day.

And yes - I'm speaking from experience :P
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Overcast, 2 Jul 2007 @ 8:30am

At least - at a former, unnamed employer.

**Disclaimer**

:)
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 2 Jul 2007 @ 9:33am

Re #2
I agree with the whole MAFFIA sucks more thing ...
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rEdEyEz, 2 Jul 2007 @ 10:16am

Targeted Audience
I think spammers have finally identified the perfect audience.

Considering some of the high level executives in the news recently, such as; the idiot who stole two laptops calling it retribution for "piracy," or the other bloke yapping about movie theaters and corn farming...

Who could ask for more?
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J, 2 Jul 2007 @ 12:08pm

MAFIAA
Come on, now. It loses its cleverness when you double the F.
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Security, 2 Jul 2007 @ 1:02pm

CEOs who read invoices?
It is hard to imagine a CEO or CFO of a medium to large firm - actually opening the Word Doc to personally review the invoice.

As a matter of fact, they probably have support staff to personally filter corporate emails
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Security, 2 Jul 2007 @ 1:02pm

CEOs who read invoices?
It is hard to imagine a CEO or CFO of a medium to large firm - actually opening the Word Doc to personally review the invoice.

As a matter of fact, they probably have support staff to personally filter corporate emails
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Tony, 3 Jul 2007 @ 12:49am

Interesting that the Spammers had such a extensive Email hit list... they should leverage it for more profitable and less illegal means.
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