3D Spam?

Less than a month ago, we wrote about the increasingly worrisome spread of computer viruses. Now this week comes a report from Symantec that tells us...

...one of the fastest-growing threats is from "phishing" attacks, which lure people to websites that appear to be owned by banks or other firms and dupe them into to giving passwords, credit card numbers or other information.

I've seen many of those pernicious messages in my email inbox, some looking remarkably genuine. Fortunately, I've been able to avoid falling prey, but I fear that numerous people have been fooled. It's a rapidly growing problem...

Phishing was up 366 percent in the six months to December 31 compared with the prior six months.

"Symantec expects that phishing will continue to be a very serious concern over the next year," the report said.

Other annoyances and hazards covered in the report include viruses, worms, spyware, and spam...

Symantec reported a 77 percent growth in spam for companies whose systems were monitored for spam.

Spam increased from an average of 800 million messages per week to well over 1,2 billion spam messages per week by the end of the reporting period, making up more than 60 percent of all email traffic observed by Symantec during this period.

Which made me think -- what happens when spam can be delivered not just as email, but as 3D objects?

When your home or office includes a desktop nanofactory as a standard appliance, how easy will it be for hackers to steal (or buy) your machine's unique address and send instructions to produce unwanted physical products?! It could be something as "innocent" as a clever marketing ploy to get you to try a new product. Or it could be something as dangerous as a smart bomb designed to look like a toy or a new electronic gadget.

Will such things happen? Almost certainly, unless we do something in advance to prevent them.

Mike Treder

Comments

[Svigor]

Err, somehow I don't think I'll have my nanofactory connected to the net.

[Tom Craver]

Imagine a future virus that infects nanofactories to periodically make produce a wireless internet connection to download new spam designs. You or your kids only need to fall for one "free trial!" scam, and your nanofactory is permanently infected and open to 3D spammers.

Next imagine a "slow virus" - one that doesn't immediately affect the nanofactory it invades. Instead, it waits several months. By the time it takes effect, you have no idea where you contracted it, no idea how to avoid getting it again even if you buy a fresh nanofactory.

Next imagine an airborne nanofactory virus. Sprayed from a passing spammer's car or plane, it drifts into your house, gets sucked in by the nanofactory's cooling fan, infecting it with instructions to make that wireless internet connection. Now you don't even have to be careless to get infected. Oh, and it produces and sprays out millions more of it's kind, so soon your whole neighborhood is infected.

Next imagine a flea-sized flying device that deliberately seeks out nanofactories to infect, with tools to drill through the nano-active micro-pore air filters you installed to catch and destroy airborne viruses. It also infects your whole neighborhood.

Then there's the tiny worm that tunnels through the power line insulation, and eventually digs into your house wiring, finds where your nanofactory is plugged in, and tunnels on into it. Millions of them then tunnel back out to infect your neighbors.

[John B]

The other thing is that several organizations, including CRNano, has called for various protection schemes for nanoassembly templates - the instructions that tell your nanofac how to build fill-in-the-blank. Many of these defensive schemes use network connectivity in various ways.

-John

[Mike Deering]

Yes, 3d spam is possible, but, it will not be easy. It will be easier to block than 2d spam. My printer is connected to my computer. My computer is connected to the internet. I get tons of spam. None of it has ever come out of my printer.

[Brett Bellmore]

Tom, with all those beasties crawling and flying about, I'd have bigger concerns than just spam.

[Chris Staffa]

Okay, what's really scary is that we already have nanofactories; they're called the cells of our bodies. If a hacker can make airborne attackers to target desktop factories, he can make our bodies malfunction however he likes. Imagine the tie-in advertising possibilities: a virus which turns your skin blue for a week, and billboard ads which say something like: Don't be a blue-skinned booby! Viagra III lowest prices!

[Chris Phoenix, CRN]

Mike D, I wish you hadn't said that about printer spam. I suspect it's only a matter of lack of imagination on the part of the spam/adware writers.

It used to be you couldn't get a virus just from opening an email message, either. Now, if you use Microsoft mail programs, you can.

And if you get a virus, there's nothing to stop it from using your printer.

Chris