Email threat types: Malware

Email attacks often come in the form of a harmless-looking email with malware attached as a .zip file or embedded in an email attachment. This malware could install ransomware, spyware, and other damaging programs. 

Malware is short for 'malicious software' and is a general term for many different types of threats to a computer system or network. Viruses, spyware, rootkits, keyloggers, and exploits are all examples of malware. The ILOVEYOU virus (also known as Lovebug) was an email attachment that started spreading in May 2000 and damaged millions of computers and cost an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion worldwide. 

"In five hours, ILOVEYOU spread across Asia, Europe and North America, some 15 times faster than the Melissa virus did when it struck a year before, infecting over 1 million computers.

 

Soon after starting business on May 4, the United Kingdom's House of Commons had to take its overloaded email servers offline, as did the Ford Motor Company and even Microsoft, whose Outlook software was the primary means of spreading the virus."  ~Source

In a few hours, ILOVEYOU also took nearly every major military base in the United States offline. Cybersecurity analyst Graham Cluley attributed this massive spread to a lack of email gateways that would have stopped malware from getting into the email system and user inboxes.

 

 

Malware is one of the email threat types examined in our free e-book, 13 email threat types to know about right now. Barracuda Total Email Protection offers a complete suite of email protection to help defend your company from spam, malware, and other email attacks. For more information on how to protect yourself, download the e-book here.