Email

Email

by Mike Masnick




Spammers Targeting CEOs

from the sneaky,-sneaky dept

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).

10 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Jul 2nd, 2007 @ 7:14am
  • Actually...

    by James

    ... it would be alot more interesting to see spammers taken into the street and beaten to a bloody pulp. :-P

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 2nd, 2007 @ 8:22am
  • Spammer vs MAFFIA?

    by Anonymous Coward

    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.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 2nd, 2007 @ 8:29am
  • by Overcast

    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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 2nd, 2007 @ 8:30am
  • by Overcast

    At least - at a former, unnamed employer.

    **Disclaimer**

    :)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 2nd, 2007 @ 9:33am
  • Re #2

    by icon Killer_Tofu (profile)

    I agree with the whole MAFFIA sucks more thing ...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 2nd, 2007 @ 10:16am
  • Targeted Audience

    by rEdEyEz

    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?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 2nd, 2007 @ 12:08pm
  • MAFIAA

    by J

    Come on, now. It loses its cleverness when you double the F.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 2nd, 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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 2nd, 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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 3rd, 2007 @ 12:49am
  • by Tony

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

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now.
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML
Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now.
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie

Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..



Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It