Spam Offering Nude Pictures of Stars Spurs Rise in Malware

Sophos recently issued September 2007 update that shows a rise over August 2007 and according to the firm, malware-affected messages offering naked pictures of gorgeous Hollywood actresses are supposedly the reason behind it.

The latest report shows that one out of every 833 electronic messages sent in September 2007 were contaminated with malware attachments as opposed to 1 out of every 1,000 messages in August.

These messages, which professing to be nude photographs of Hollywood stars like Holly Berry [sic] and Angelina Jolie, contain malware intended to provide cyber criminals power over affected computers. Sophos informed that during the September last week, within a span of 24-hours, the Pushdo Trojan accounted for nearly 4 emails out of 5 emails that were infected. The badly phrased messages carried a range of malware, but Netsky worm led with about 30%. Mytob and Pushdo followed.

As per Carole Theriault, a Senior Security Consultant at Sophos, the ploy of enticing people with nude images of hot-looking females is age old - but users are still duped by it, indicated Vnunet.com on 1 October 2007.

Carole further stated that the alleged Pushdo Trojan had been emailed each Wednesday since the month of March 2007 through different tempting camouflages, but cyberpunks these days are sending off these malicious e-mails any day and any time. Tech.blorge.com published this news on 1 October 2007.

Theriault further said that online strikes are a constant source of anxiety for Internet users worldwide, with the two greatest menaces, ObfJS and Mal/Iframe, being responsible for more than 75% of compromised Web pages.

Early on September, Sophos informed that cyber-terrorists were utilizing malware-corrupted Websites that are owned by US Consulate General in Russia's St. Petersburg. As per Sophos, China with 54.9% infected Websites continued to be the nation hosting the record number of sites with malware in September. The US and Russia trailed behind China, with 17.1% and 14.4%, respectively.

However, Ukraine has emerged as the nation with inconsistent amount of affected WebPages, said Theriault. He added that this is probably due to the dearth of IT knowledge and existing resources to deal with Internet supported malicious software, reported the Tech.blorge.com on 1 October 2007.

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