Hackers Launch Malware Campaign Exploiting Tiger Woods Accident

The news of Tiger Woods, the world's top golfer, car accident that took place outside his residence in Florida (US) has attracted cyber criminals' attention.

Hence, Sophos has recommend users to be vigilant while searching news associated with the accident.

Hackers, by early morning of November 28, 2009, placed Web pages that promised videos of the accident. While surfing these pages, visitors' systems were compromised with malware, according to Sophos.

Furthermore, cyber crooks made sure that those malicious pages appeared among top results of search engines. Sophos also said that visitors of these Web pages would be infected with Troj/Proxy-JN, a malicious Trojan horse. This Trojan will enter a user's system, and without any prior warning, it will permit hackers to transmit spam through the system, said the security company, as reported by computerweekly on November 30, 2009.

In other malicious videos, Golfer's marriage with Elin Nodegren, a Swedish model, is in a big trouble due to his alleged friendly relationship with Rachel Uchitel, a New York City party girl.

Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, said that serving people with malicious video links is a threat to companies as well as home users. Many users, after a weekend, may turn on their systems for latest events going on and will get infection, as reported by cbronline on November 30, 2009.

Meanwhile, Symantec has listed a number of compromised websites, which are among the top search results linked with the car crash. While surfing one of the infected website, a user will be impelled to scan his system for viruses and then will be forced to purchase bogus antivirus software.

According to Hon Lau, Symantec's senior security response manager, from IT security perspective, this case is like just another fruit ready to eat, in context of malware developers, as reported by securecomputing.net.au on December 1, 2009.

A sports celebrity became subject of a malware campaign like this is not a new thing. In September 2009, users searching for tennis star Serena William's video, in which she lost her temper on the court, were attacked.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 12/7/2009