Spam Mails about Hadron Collider Plants Trojan

Security researchers at Sophos have alerted that a malware-ridden spam is spreading on the Internet. It offers a movie clip that shows the Hadron Collider performing its gigantic act.

The movie, apparently, is available from a link -mytinyurl.net - that comes with e-mails. However, Sophos states that it is devious right from the beginning.

On clicking mytinyurl.net, one is diverted to a website that asserts it would run a movie showcasing the Hadron Collider. Meanwhile, the e-mail's text, expressing excitement in getting the video, asserts that the movie is truly cool.

It also tells that several thousand individuals have already taken pleasure from the video and they have even bookmarked it. However, a particular Flash plug-in is required for playing it. Here the security company says that the plug-in actually carries malware.

Prashant Kumar, Researcher at Sophos Labs, states that since the movie is new and different, existing Flash plug-in doesn't seem to be appropriate for it; so the message suggests for its updation, as reported by V3 on November 24, 2009.

Kumar further says that users don't find a video showcasing the biggest particle accelerator in the world, but they actually end up getting one more annoying old malware. He adds that this apparent program of Flash update is a malware that Sophos has identified as Troj/TDSS-BSP.

Commenting on the issue, Sophos' researchers stated that phishing and malware assaults frequently used leading news events to trap people. In the Hadron Collider instance too, authors of malicious programs launched their junk e-mail scheme just when the Hadron Collider tested successfully during the 3rd week of November 2009 following the suspension of the project in September 2008. Since many people were searching Web for details regarding the eventful development, authors of malicious software found it convenient in exploiting the news for catching increased number of victims, the researchers concluded.

Attack against Hadron Collider by cyber criminals isn't new. During September 2008, the "Greek Security Team" of hackers invaded computers at the Geneva (Switzerland) located facility of CERN that housed the Collider, but no damage occurred.

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» SPAMfighter News - 12/3/2009