Google Sites attracts spammers

Google hosted applications continue to be a favourite destination for malware authors to create infected web pages. The trend of abusing Google applications such as Google Docs and Google Calendar has continued with spammers now setting their sights on Google Sites, an application that lets surfers create collaborative internet projects. Security firm MessageLabs noticed a significant trend in July for infected pages on Google Sites as it lets even a novice create a malware-infected page. "While Google Sites spam accounts for only one per cent of all spam currently, we anticipate that this technique’s popularity will rival that of its predecessors, Google Docs, Calendar and Pages spam," said Mark Sunner, chief security analyst at MessageLabs. "If this is the case, then we may see spam levels increase in the months ahead," he added. Emails generated by the Storm botnet with subject lines displaying celebrity names and made-up breaking news reports continued to flood the net in July. Among the popular subject lines was news of the economic downturn, fake earthquakes in China, as well as emails with videos of celebrities, which if downloaded installed a rogue program on the user's computer. July saw slight decreases in the numbers of email-borne viruses, as well as spam levels. However, phishing activity rose, according to MessageLabs. www.messagelabs.com www.sites.google.com