Cybercrooks abandoning large spam runs and indiscriminate attacks in search of higher profits doing targeted hacks. Cisco estimated that worldwide revenue from high volume spamming has decreased by more than two thirds since last year, from $1 billion a year ago to just $300 million today. Revenue from scams and other malicious attacks has quadrupled from $50 million to around $200 million, the company reported. Low conversion rates are behind the move away from mass attacks, Cisco said. Targeted attacks share many characteristics with mass spam runs, including the use of e-mail messages containing malicious file attachments or Web links.
Source: https://threatpost.com/spam-profits-down-cybercrooks-flock-targeted-attacks-070111/75390/