Threat Management, Malware, Phishing

78% of Christmas email is spam, report

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Along with good tidings, the holiday season is bringing a preponderance of spam, according to a post from Cyren.

Email with the word "Christmas" in the subject bar is almost entirely commercial or criminal, the Internet security technology company reported.

More than three-quarters (78%) of emails that passed through the company's cloud security operations this past week was spam. And, as it analyzes billions of emails each day, the tally is more Scrooge than Santa.

The emails can prove more than just an inconvenience clogging inboxes. A good deal of the messages contain links to phony shopping sites that purport to offer merchandise from leading brands, especially fashion brands like Michael Kors, Nike and UGG.

One campaign in particular, targeting a phony Michael Kors site, topped the list as the highest volume non-malware attack detected by Cyren's security cloud this year.

While these types of phishing campaigns carry no malicious email attachments capable of polluting a computer or network with ransomware, they're still capable of stealing money from individuals falling for their ploys, the company warned.

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