Hackers Distribute Scareware by Exploiting ‘Dawn Brancheau’ Death

Sophos, the IT control and Security Company, has cautioned that hackers are cashing in on the widespread online search for images and videos of the passed away 'Dawn Brancheau.' Brancheau was known for his art of training sea animals. Brancheau was killed when a whale attacked him, as reported by SOPHOS on February 25, 2010.

Following the death of Dawn Brancheau on February 24, 2010, Ghoulish Web-surfers have been searching for videos and photographs of the incident, which occurred at a public event in Sea World, Orlando (USA). With the help of Search Engine Optimization tactics, cyber criminals have set up malicious web-pages containing content that appear video recordings of the death of the animal trainer. The pages in reality infect PCs visiting them.

Sophos alerts Web-surfers intending to click on the poisoned web-links about security threats. These threats could harm their computers as hackers' attempts to persuade them to purchase a fake antivirus program. Sophos has spotted this program as 'Mal/FakeAV-BW.' It has advised users to exercise caution while following the links as well as make sure they've up-to-date antivirus software running.

Commenting on the problem, Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant, Sophos, stated that although it sounded unbelievable that anybody would be keen to see videos about the ghastly death, it was presently the most searched item online, as reported by SOPHOS on February 25, 2010.

Cluley further said that the poisoned web-pages of the video footage could appear on high ranks among the search results. Visiting those pages might lead to pop-up alerts that would tell of security problems on the user's PC. But the alerts were all false and designed for deceiving the user into downloading seriously harmful software or to divulge his credit card information, Cluley added.

Sophos states that fake antivirus software or scareware attacks as described above are becoming the more regular weapons in cyber criminals' armory. According to Cluley, the latest scam is based on tricks that aren't different from those observed earlier in case of celebrity deaths like Patrick Swayze or the September 11 terrorist attack anniversary, as reported by Sunbelt Software on February 25, 2010.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 3/8/2010