Spammers have begun to use ASCII smuggling—a Unicode block invisible to humans—more widely. Previously, this technique was linked to attacks on artificial intelligence systems, according to a report from Ars Technica Technology Lab.
The practical significance of this news is that visually harmless text can hide additional data from users. However, the available material consists only of metadata and a brief description of the publication, so details about the campaigns and consequences require verification against the full text and additional sources.
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Why it matters
A likely consequence is increased attention to invisible characters and other methods of hiding message content. The next observable signal will be the emergence of details about specific spam campaigns and protective measures. Significant uncertainty remains because currently only a metadata summary of one publication is available.