Malware Attacks Connected To Swine Flu, Celebs

What do H1N1, the Twilight vampire franchise and Tiger Woods have in common? The answer is no laughing matter: malware. As many Internet security vendors know, one of the ways cyber-criminals trick people into downloading harmful files is by tying malicious files to current events.

Take this recent solicitation, purportedly from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control: “You have received this e-mail because of the launching of State Vaccination H1N1 Program. You need to create your personal H1N1 (swine flue [sic]) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov website…”  The e-mail, explained in a recent post by McAfee Labs Blog, continues with an explanation of how the creation of a “Vaccination Profile” is mandatory by law, and it offers a link for individuals to create their own personal profile.  Of course, once you click on the link, you’re led to a site instructing you to download a tool to create your vaccination profile. This is actually an executable that installs a recent variant on the infamous Zeus trojan, McAfee explains.


Likewise, PC World warns of a Web attack targeting fans of the “Twilight” vampire film series. Those wishing to view the latest installment, “New Moon,” are “baited with the text websites, chat rooms and blogs that read: ‘Watch New Moon Full Movie,’” according to the site. Click through to the “streamviewer,” however, and you could wind up with malware installed on your computer instead.


If you were quick to get online looking for videos of the Tiger Woods car accident shortly after news of the incident broke last weekend, you may have come across sites promising videos of the incident. Predictably, these also were designed to infect marks’ computers. The cyber-criminals behind such attacks apparently have a knack for search engine optimization. As Computerweekly.com’s Warwick Ashford explains, they “ensured the malicious web pages appeared high up in search engine results by exploiting the golfer's mysterious car accident and alleged marriage troubles.”

This isn’t the first time or the last that scammers will jump on a hot news item’s coattails and try to ride it to criminal ends. Another reminder to keep anti-malware software current, and to be mindful of sources for anything you download to your machine.