Waledac--A Victory For "Social Engineering" but a defeat for consumer trust
Security analysts are forecasting that there will be another outbreak of the Waledac worm over the Fourth of July weekend. You can read about it here.
The last big episode was over Valentine's Day when pictures of fuzzy puppies and candy hearts lured people into opening their computers doors to malware. This time the bait will be email messages carrying fireworks and patriotic messages but the outcome will be the same. One bad click and the consumer's PC is another bot on the net.
Criminals of all kinds are adept at social engineering--manipulating basic human emotions to their own misguided ends. A couple of years ago it was scams based on Hurricane Katrina. Last week it was scams based on Michael Jackson's death. They are as adept as pushing people's buttons as they are at pushing keys on their keyboards.
In the end though, the biggest damage will be to consumer confidence in email. Consumers are already skeptical about email. Widespread botnet outbreaks only fuel more skepticism. No brand--whether media, finance or commerce--will be immune from being collateral damage. In the first case as unwilling carriers into the consumers inbox and later when their messages are ignored.
CertifiedEmail counters this breakdown of trust. The blue ribbon envelope icon is the only way that a consumer can actually tell that an email is legitimate. It means that Goodmail has accredited the sender and verified that they are really the entity that is sending. It means that we have evaluated the senders email practices initially and continued to check them in real-time as each message is sent and received. It also means that Goodmail has ensured delivery from the moment that the message left the sender to the time that it lands in the inbox. No other firm or technology can offer this level of trust and security.