In an unbelievable turn of events and another example of just how far some cyber criminals will go to inflict misery on our computers it has been discovered that cybercriminals have exploited interest in the breaking news story of the explosions at the Boston Marathon by spreading malware.
Messages spammed out by attackers claim
to contain a link to video footage of Monday's terrorist activity in Boston,
with subject lines such as "2 Explosions at Boston Marathon".
Other subject lines used in the
campaign include:
If you make the mistake of clicking on the link, however, you are taken to a website which - while showing you genuine YouTube videos of the horrific incident - attempts to infect your computer with a Windows Trojan horse that Sophos products detect as Troj/Tepfer-Q.
If installed, the malware
makes changes to the Registry and installs the following files, allowing
hackers to gain remote access to infected computers:
<System>\drivers\npf.sys
<System>\Packet.dll
<System>\wpcap.dll
<System>\Packet.dll
<System>\wpcap.dll
The file NPF.sys is
registered as a new service named "NPF", with a display name of
"WinPcap Packet Driver (NPF)".
Clearly, there are no
depths to which cybercriminals are not prepared to stoop in their hunt for
victims.
The sick truth is that
malware authors and malicious hackers lose no sleep about exploiting the deaths
of innocent people in their attempt to infect computers for the purposes of
stealing money, resources and identities.
Remember to be on your guard against such
tactics. Maybe it's time to get your news from legitimate news websites rather
than an unsolicited email which arrives in your inbox?
If you would like to watch videos from the Boston tragedy you should go to a respected news source directly such as ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX or CNN. Do not click on unsolicted links in your email.
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