A new email-based threat is capable of infecting a machine even without opening any attachments within, according to a report from the Daily Mail.
The emails, which reportedly download their payload once opened, are not directly infected and therefore will not trigger detection by anti-virus software.
This is concerning next step in malware distribution. Traditionally, cybercriminals have had to rely on clever and elaborate social engineering tactics to trick victims not only into opening the emails themselves, but also downloading infected files attached within them.
“This sort of spam also affects cautious users which would never open an unknown attachment or link,” experts from Eleven Research Team told the Daily Mail.
Eleven Research Team has reportedly dubbed the attacks, ‘drive-by emails.’
