Happy Birthday SoBig!

January 9, 2008 marks the 5th anniversary of the SoBig.A virus. The variant of SoBig that really brought this virus its' fame and notoriety was actually SoBig.F which didn't come out until later that year (August, 2003). SoBig in general, however marked a monumental shift in the malware paradigm from clout and recognition in the cyber criminal community to an economy driven by making money.

It is this paradigm shift that has continuously evolved over the past 5 years. Over that time it has changed from phishing messages with bad grammar and easily identifiable methods for blocking to finely crafted, evolved social engineering and a full underground economy where phishing and malware kits are sold as a business with full technical support and free upgrades. A model similar to what is offered by many legitimate software companies.

It was a logical transition for the system to take where we moved from the for-recognition model of spam and malware attacks to the for-profit model, but it was SoBig that really jump started that entire movement. So when you see your next Paypal phish or drive by download, be sure to tip your glass to SoBig, the grandfather of it all.

Posted by smasiello at 10:47 AM | Link | 0 comments

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