Alan Sherman and Anupam Joshi, computer science and electrical engineering, were both quoted in a Baltimore Sun article looking at how scammers are using “irresistible” news headlines—such as the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, the British royal wedding and Bin Laden’s death—to spread malware.
Spammers and scammers are “finding the next set of weak points,” said Anupam Joshi, “One of the weak points in the age of instant news is: ‘Hey, did you hear?'”
According to Sherman, “One of the things that’s holding back advances in security work is the inability for anyone to come up with good economic linkage between the cost of defending and the cost of not defending” against cyberintrusions.
The article, “Cyber bandits exploit breaking news to spread scams,” was published May 6.
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