FBI Warned against Valentine Day Storm Worm

The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) office in San Diego, California, has issued a warning in the backdrop of Valentine Day against possible spam e-mails that are spreading malware known as "Storm Ware" for computer users.

The FBI has suspected another infamous storm worm e-mail attack designed by computer hackers specifically for Valentine Day is doing the rounds. The Internet center of the government also said that Valentine Day might bring worms along with warm wishes of love.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center said that last year (during holidays) witnessed millions of spam e-mails, which were advertised as e-cards but inside contained malicious links. This time, Valentine Day could be the new target of attackers, as reported by 10NEWS on February 11, 2008.

Spam e-mails work as a weapon for the Strom worm to enhance the size of its botnet - a class of individual consumers controlled by hacker. In fact, botnet is an established network of compromised computers, which is controlled by a single hacker.

FBI also stated that botents are excessively employed to carry out online criminal activities effectively. They also help in successfully accomplishing criminal activities like sending spam e-mails, blocking the service on the affected computer, carrying out identify thefts and enhancing area of malware to those computer which are linked with the Internet, as reported by FBI Website on February 12, 2008.

As per the malware blog of TrendLabs published on February 11, 2008, to maintain the size of the botent, its owners are ready to do whatever is in their limits. The message is likely to be based on the theme of love this time.

FBI in its news release also said that the spam e-mails contain links, which disguised as electronic greeting card. As the user click on the given link, a malware will be downloaded on the users computer. This malware will corrupt the computer and associate it with Storm Ware botnet, authorities said.

FBI has said that users avoid opening e-mails of unknown persons and do not click any illegitimate link, as it could be malware. Instead send such e-mails and links to http://www.ic3.gov.

Related article: FBI’s ICCC Annual Report Discusses Fraudulent and Non-Fraudulent Complaints

» SPAMfighter News - 2/14/2008