Infosecurity

Swine flu panic exploited by spammers

By Robin Hicks | 29 April 2009

Spammers are exploiting the panic caused by the swine flu virus to install malicious code on unsuspecting victims’ computers, flood email inboxes with spam and lure people into clicking links that collect their email addresses.

View photos

Related Articles

• Swine flu has ‘pandemic potential’

Related Categories

• INFOSECURITY

From this Section

• NEWS

According to the information security firm Symantec, cyber criminals are using a number of tactics to snare computer users.

A malicious PDF attachment called “Swine influenza frequently asked questions.pdf” has been found in spamming emails. When users access the file, malcode within the PDF tries to drop another piece of malware (Infostealer) onto the user’s system. Infostealer then steals personal information from the computer, gathering it via email.

Another tactic is for the spam email to inform recipients of the outbreak, using linked news headlines from various news agencies. Users are asked if they are in the United States or Mexico and whether or not they know anybody who is affected by the outbreak. Users can share their experiences by filling in a form (URL provided), or reply back with their story along with their contact details.

The top five swine flu headlines are: “Swine flu in USA”, “Salma Hayek caught swine flu!”, “US swine flu statistics”, “Swine flu in Hollywood!” and “NY victims of swine flu”.

Symantec is advising computer users to observe security best practices by keeping all security and other software up-to-date and practice caution when opening suspicious files from unknown sources.