More Trojans Disguised as Breaking News
Wednesday August 13, 2008
The storm of scary sounding email continues, this time disguised as breaking news alerts from CNN and MSNBC. The email "From" address is spoofed. The fake address may be "CNN Alerts", "Daily Top 10", or "MSNBC Breaking News". Subject lines include:
CNN.com Daily Top 10
CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert
CNN Alerts: Breaking news
msnbc.com: BREAKING NEWS: (bogus headline)
The fake news alerts are a continuation of a rash of spam that bear much resemblance to the all-too-familiar tactics of the Storm family of trojans.
Comments
Mary,
Thank you for the excellent tips. I always read your newsletter.
Would you please do an article on which antivirus and antimalware programs work well together? I prefer to use more than one defense against all types of malware, but I have found that some of these programs fight each other and cause problems with my OS.
I am running Windows Vista Home/Premium on an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC (Notebook). The CPU is AMD Turion 64×2. The laptop is wireless; the other three pcs on my LAN are tied together with CAT5 cables.
Thanks so much for your fine newsletter.
Richard
I am getting between ten and 15 CNN alerts each day. They are all named “My Custom Alerts”. Well, I know what my custom alerts are, and they are not these. I did open a few, which is how they trap you anyway, and each one had a different email supplier. No, I did NOT click on any links. I do have CNN updates anyway, and I know what those are.
I am, now, also getting emails from MSNBC Breaking News. Maybe these are okay, but why email me when I have not subscribed? I have never had anything to do with NBC and have not signed to them ever.
On a different topic, Norton found this on a friend’s system:
Virus: MSIE ADODB.stream Object File installation weakness
He asked me what it is and I have no idea. Any heads-up would be most welcome!
Richard, I would install AVG free as a virus scan, Spybot, and obviously make sure you have a firewall that will protect wi-fi or networks. McAfee is good, Zone Alarm is free. Norton is, in my opinion, a pain in the arse. I also use A squared which I personally like and was recommended by some high-powered guy in a safe-forum. This doesn’t mean it is good though, and I would like to know what this site thinks of A Squared. Other things I use are Superantispyware and Spyware terminator. I would like to know what this site thinks of them too.
I am told that one of the first things one must do is change the password on the router. I have no idea how to do this and would welcome help please!!!!!!
I also use HijackThis regularly to check on what has gotten in. But handle with care!
Plus, I use a Cleaner. You can easily use CCleaner to wipe out your traces on the net but, more interestingly, it kills stuff.
I also use McaFee SiteAdvisor and this highlights any dubious site on Google. I also use a password scrambler.
Mary, I would really like to know what you think of A Squared!
Why use such a many-layered set of protection? Is it really that bad out there?
Yes.
It is that bad out there. Protect yourselves and surf safely!
May I ask again what this is:
Virus: MSIE ADODB.stream Object File installation weakness
Many thanks. Much appreciated.
I learned from a previous about.antivirus newsletter how to quickly determine the email address of something in the inbox-place the courser over the sender name-DO NOT CLICK-a fade-in will give you the email address of the sender.
This tip has saved me several times, most recently when this latest round of trojan evil started, and before anyone had tumbled to it! When I found a news alert from cnn in my spam folder I used the tip and was shocked to find it did not originate from cnn, but the next two had.
This morning I have the first of the msnbc alerts showing up-but as another poster has written, I did not sign up for these.
Hmph to the bad guys, and three cheers for Mary’s excellent newsletter!
This latest flood of garbage has gone from scary headlines to the usual Angelina Jolie, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears headlines. I’m sure there are people who really care about what these airheads are doing and get suckered into opening these emails, but I’m not one of them.
I have my filters set to dump these in the Trash, so I don’t even have to bother with deleting them.
I am getting these e-mails relating to Britney and Paris, and I have been consigning them to the recycle bin - never opening them. The sheer stupidity of the contenet is enough to give you a clue. Isn’t there some organisation with the capability to trace this rubbish and nip it in the bud, as it were?