Malware to crimeware: how far have they gone, and how do we catch up?
David Dittrich · ;login:: the magazine of USENIX & SAGE · 2009
I have surveyed over a decade of advances in delivery of malware. Over this period, attackers have shifted to using complex, multi-phase attacks based on subtle social engineering tactics, advanced cryptographic techniques to defeat takeover and analysis, and highly targeted attacks that are intended to fly below the radar of current technical defenses. I will show you how malicious technology combined with social manipulation is used against us and conclude that this understanding might even help us design our own combination of technical and social mechanism to better protect us.