Sex Still Hot Topic in Malware Attacks

According to the Internet security company 'Sophos,' there is an increasing circulation of malware campaigns related to sex and porn on the Net as cyber criminals, especially spammers and hackers, work to design and unleash them.

In the past few days, security investigators at Sophos issued a warning about the most recent sex-driven malicious program detected by the systems of the company.

Sophos found a Trojan called Troj/AdClick-FR that thwarts the services of antivirus software. Moreover, the malicious program displays itself on an infected computer as a harmless looking file named EroticPamela.mpg.

The program further attempts at imitating a media file of Windows to deceive computer users so that they think it is legitimate. The malicious program describes itself as a Windows Media Video by showing an icon of Windows Media, but in reality it is a malicious executable.

Besides, the malware attempts at embedding itself so that it may become active automatically every time the system starts up following which it changes the settings of Windows Explorer of the infected user. Additionally, the attack tries to modify the Windows System Properties page of the infected computer.

Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson might not be enjoying a celebrity appeal to the same degree that was for them some years back when the stars regularly appeared among the top search engine results. Nonetheless, their legacy continues in cyber-space.

In several high-profile incidences that occurred over the past few weeks, researchers have witnessed that sex undoubtedly continues as a highly popular and workable subject in proliferating malware infections among end-users.

For example, during June 2009, Sophos cautioned users of both Mac and Windows that cyber attackers had added a tweet to the Twitter page of Guy Kawasaki along with a link that apparently presented a freely available sex movie on star Leighton Meester of the popular TV program 'Gossip Girl'.

In another incident, a nude movie of Erin Andrews a reporter for ESPN was recently posted online to distribute malicious program.

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» SPAMfighter News - 8/14/2009