LinkedIn users targeted for spam attacks

Cybercriminals began a campaign Monday that targeted LinkedIn users in a concerted spam attack, Cisco senior security researcher Henry Stern told ZDNet UK on Tuesday. What differentiated the campaign from others was the scale of the attack and the fact that it targeted business users, he said.

"The combination of extremely high volume and the focus on business users suggests the attackers are interested in employees with access to online bank accounts," said Stern. "We've provided LinkedIn with the information they need to take action against the spammers."

At one point on Monday, over a quarter of the spam hitting Cisco nodes was due to this particular attack, Stern said, with billions of emails being sent. The emails were not targeted, but were designed for LinkedIn users to self-select, he added.

For more on this story, read Spammers try to dupe LinkedIn users in Zeus attack on ZDNet UK.