– AVG examines the motives, methods and impact of the world’s most unscrupulous spammers – 

MELBOURNE – 29 May, 2013 – AVG Technologies N.V. (NYSE: AVG), the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimisation to 150 million active users, has today published the third edition of its monthly newsletter, AVG Insight.

The May AVG Insight focuses on the despicable spammers who attempt to profit from human tragedy. Using last month’s Boston Marathon bombings and Waco fertiliser factory explosion as examples, the AVG Web Threats Research Team examines the motives, methods and impact of such spam.

Not surprisingly, a spammer’s main motivation is financial gain, and they play a simple numbers game: send out enough spam messages – usually measured in the millions – and somebody, somewhere will bite. Once a victim has clicked on a malicious link, the spammer’s malicious code will try to do one or both of the following:

• Secretly add your machine as a botnet ‘node’ – allowing the spammer to use it and its Internet connection to serve his or her future illicit plans

• Steal personal and financial information, or lock your computer using ‘ransomware’

The Insight goes on to briefly explain what a botnet is, and then describes the spam that followed the Boston and Waco incidents. Lastly, it offers three golden rules to follow to help people avoid becoming victims of spam.

To read the full AVG Insight on the AVG Media Center, or to download a PDF copy, please click here.