The arrest of a popular Mexican actress, Fernanda Romero, in the third week of July, 2010 has given rise to a malware spamfest incident. The new incident has highlighted a strong tactic used by cyber criminals to spread malware.
Ms. Romero was arrested in the third week of July 2010 for fraud marriage allegations. According to the Spanish-speaking newswires, Ms Romero is blamed of paying an American man to help her for getting the US citizenship, as reported by infosecurity on July 16, 2010. The security firm 'Panda Labs' states that criminals instantly exploited the arrest news by sending spam mail and infesting websites with malware. These spam mails and websites attracted many Spanish speakers on the promise of providing information about the arrest, as reported by infosecurity on July 16, 2010. The firm further states that whether this is true or false, cyber criminals have taken advantage of this incident and initiated the spreading of rogueware SecurityMaster AV. As per the researchers, SecurityMasterAV is an adware program that misleads users by showing a warning of non-existent threats on their computers. Thus, it convinces them (users) to purchase a program that removes threats from their systems. In addition, it prevents users from accessing specific search engines and from running certain legal antivirus programs, leaving the system vulnerable. The rougeware can also install in the computer when the user visits certain websites that displays banners or pop-up windows. These banners and pop-ups lead to the download of this program. Besides, it can reach the system in a link received through spam messages, fraud websites, etc. If the users follow the links of any of the nasty search results, they are ultimately redirected to websites such as, www1.check <blocked>.co.cc or www1.cover<blocked>.co.cc, from where a file called PACKUPDATE107_195.EXE is downloaded. According to the security firm, the websites displayed have no relevance to the search carried out rather an image resembling 'My Computer' is displayed along with an alert message of infection, after the system is scanned. Some of the most prominent keywords, that can lead users to malicious websites are- Fernanda Romero drag me to hell, Fernanda Romero imdb, Fernanda Romero arrested, Fernanda Romero actress and Fernanda Romero 2010. |
