Hackers Send Malicious Link Exploiting Brazilian Airline Crash

As per their nature, hackers haven't spared the chance of exploiting the airline crash in Sao Paulo, Brazil, according to Websense Inc., a U.S-based security company. The crash occurred on July 17, 2007 killing many.

Websense is warning that an e-mail spam is using people's sentiments on the tragedy by luring recipients to a malware-hosting website. The e-mail message in Portuguese language tells the details regarding the crash of the TAM airlines when it was preparing to land at the unsafe Congonhas Airport located in Sao Paulo.

The message says that immediately after the confirmation of the victims' names, authorities would inform their families before announcing any further details. It claims to remind that TAM has begun its Victims & Family Assistance Program with their phone number 0800-117900, which is set to provide necessary information to families and crewmembers of the flight.

The e-mail also contains a malicious link, which on clicking prompts users to run a code from a site that is hosted in South Korea. The site has hosted harmful Brazilian code earlier also. The present code is a Trojan downloader that links to another website from where it downloads and plants a Trojan horse to steal information, warns Websense.

Cyber criminals don't refrain from taking advantage of catastrophes, large or small, to trick users into opening attachments and visiting websites, usually harmful. Major growths in phishing attacks, malware infections, and spam soon followed such disasters like the tsunami of December 2004 in Southeast Asia.

Similarly, there was an e-mail spam elaborating the details of the European storm in January 2007 that also contained a tricky virus. The e-mail reflected the subject head as "230 dead as storm batters Europe" exposing computers to attacks. Still earlier in August 2005, an e-mail scam presented news updates about Hurricane Katrina in United States but scattered a virus that helped hackers to access user's files on the computer and also control them.

Hackers find it very easy to use such viruses and malware as people tend to naturally respond to eventful news stories allowing the former to exploit readers' curiosity. So these events came as a tool for hackers to emotionally blackmail innocent people.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 7/30/2007