Symantec – Spammers & Malware Writers Using “Swine Flu” to Deceive People

Symantec Security Response has found that malware writers have joined hands
with spammers in using the swine flu story to infect computers with viruses.

Although samples of spam mail and malware are inadequate, Symantec informs
that hackers are trying to leverage the current calamity to entice
unsuspicious customers into clicking on their malware.

Symantec reveals that it has studied a harmful Adobe PDF document named
"Swine influenza frequently asked questions.pdf." When users try to access
the PDF file, its viral code endeavors to exploit Adobe Acrobat vulnerability
for delivering malware. The malevolent PDF file is found to be
Bloodhound.Exploit.6 rooted with 'InfoStealer'.

Moreover, another spam e-mail with a title "Suspected Mexican flu toll hits
81" contains news information from authentic agencies asking the recipients
if they are living in Mexico or the US or they have any information regarding
anyone attacked by the outbreak. As per a Symantec's blog, the e-mail
recipients are asked to visit a website to fill in a form. Moreover, they can
also send reply to the mail with details of their address, mail address and
phone number, reveals Symantec's blog, as reported by cnet news on April 28,
2009.

Security experts state that this appears to be the latest trend being tested
by hackers. They are using the 'current news event spam campaign' i.e. "Swine
Flu". Symantec further adds that hackers appeared to be engrossed in
gathering mail addresses-probably for their further campaigns.

Moreover, the security company discloses that it has found the top 10 'swine
flu' subject lines used by hackers presently to entice people. Top 3 of these
headlines are "Swine flu in USA"; Salma Hayek caught swine flu, US swine flu
statistics, etc.

Symantec also claims that computer users should implement security best
practices by updating all security software and should be alert when opening
wary files from unfamiliar sources.

For now, it is not Symantec who has discovered the mischief being done by
hackers and malware creators. F-Secure and McAfee Avert Labs have also found
that hackers are sending harmful spam mails to naïve users who want to know
more about the disease since it targeted Mexico during the 3rd week of April
2009.

Related article: Sentence for American Contractor for Sabotaging Government Navy Computers

» SPAMfighter News - 5/6/2009