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Cyberoam, a division of Elitecore Technologies and the innovator of identity-based Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions, today announced the July 2011 Internet threats trend report, prepared in collaboration with its partner, Commtouch. In this quarter, spammers launched the most glaring exploit surrounding the iPhone 5 release by using text and forged images together to reflect popular rumours about the new device i.e. slimmer, faster, bigger display, better cloud integration etc. to lure unsuspecting users.

All images and links in the email would then point to iPhone.gif which actually turned out to be a malware called iPhone.gif.exe. Clicking anywhere on the link would download the malware file hidden inside a compromised legitimate site.

Says Abhilash Sonwane, Sr. VP, Product Management, Cyberoam, “The growing popularity of iPhone and Android-based handheld gadgets worldwide is drawing attention from app developers as well as cyber-criminals. Based on current Cyberoam research on smartphone security and privacy breaches, we believe the present web malware attack trends mark just the beginning of what will be endless targeted attacks on the actual device itself. In the future, expect social media apps to lead focused attacks on mobile phones due to greater overlap in the boundaries between physical and virtual spaces as the anonymity experienced by users online will be no longer there.”

In another major story, spammers attacked Facebook which has more than 500 million active users with messages similar to "watch the Osama Bin Laden video". The link which claimed to refer to the original video of Osama bin Laden’s death later spread virally across Facebook, directing users to malicious sites. The malicious code was sending out messages that appeared to come from a user’s “friend” addressing them by name followed by a clickable link.

Says Abhilash Sonwane, Sr. VP, Product Management, Cyberoam, “The spamming of Facebook by Osama Bin Laden’s video within hours of his death, points to the preparedness and the agility of cyber-criminals in being able to exploit current events. They leverage information, especially the “hot” search items of the day, try to understand and analyse user psychology to write lethal codes that go on to steal sensitive personal information.”

Other highlights from the July 2011 report included numerous malware outbreaks based on SEO poisoning, fake IRS “rejected payment” emails, and malicious scripts embedded in Adobe PDF files. The World IPv6 day on June 8th raised the profile of the replacement for IPv4 but also highlighted the potential threats that will accompany its introduction.