Welcome Guest. | Log In | Register | Membership Benefits
Dark Reading's sophoslabs-insights Weblog

Topics:   SophosLabs Insights
  • |   Email this page E-mail
  • |  Print Print
  • |   Bookmark and Share

Spammers Scramble To Exploit Michael Jackson's Death

It took a mere eight hours for cybercriminals to take advantage of the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson.

Jun 26, 2009 | 10:29 AM | 

By Graham Cluley
Dark Reading
It took a mere eight hours for cybercriminals to take advantage of the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson.Many people were probably first only just learning about the King of Pop's passing when analysts at SophosLabs intercepted the first criminal attempt to exploit his name.

A wave of email messages, claiming to be from a secret correspondent who alleged he had "vital informations after the death of Michael Jackson's," were seen in spam traps worldwide

OK, so it's not the most grammatically convincing spam message ever sent, but in the whirlwind of interest in Jackson's demise, probably more than a few had their interest piqued.

Spam exploiting death of Michael Jackson

What's the purpose of this campaign? It's hard to say, but possibly the cybercriminals are hoping you reply, confirming your address is live, which, in turn, might result in you receiving more spam in future. Or maybe once they've won your confidence, they'll send you a link or attachment designed to infect your computer.

Either way, responding doesn't make sense.

In a related incident, the folks at WebSense have intercepted a Trojan horse that is being advertised via spam as a supposed link to a Michael Jackson YouTube video. In reality, it's designed to infect your Windows PC.

Cybercriminals have a long history of exploiting breaking news stories for their own financial gain. Attacks have varied from 419 scams claiming to offer inheritances from victims of the Concorde air crash or Western Virginia mining disaster, to the death of the Pope, and the recent demise of actresses Natasha Richardson and Farrah Fawcett.

Speed is everything for these hackers. They realize more people will be searching for information about Michael Jackson, and clicking on more links to news stories today than, say, in two weeks' time.

It's understandable that you may want to follow breaking news stories on the Internet -- but make sure you are not falling into a trap. Visit established news Websites rather than clicking on unknown links or using a search engine that might take you to a keyword-stuffed Website harboring malware.

Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos, and has been working in the computer security field since the early 1990s. When he's not updating his other blog on the Sophos website you can find him on Twitter at @gcluley. Special to Dark Reading.



Currently we allow the following HTML tags in comments:

Single tags

These tags can be used alone and don't need an ending tag.

<br> Defines a single line break

<hr> Defines a horizontal line

Matching tags

These require an ending tag - e.g. <i>italic text</i>

<a> Defines an anchor

<b> Defines bold text

<big> Defines big text

<blockquote> Defines a long quotation

<caption> Defines a table caption

<cite> Defines a citation

<code> Defines computer code text

<em> Defines emphasized text

<fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form

<h1> This is heading 1

<h2> This is heading 2

<h3> This is heading 3

<h4> This is heading 4

<h5> This is heading 5

<h6> This is heading 6

<i> Defines italic text

<p> Defines a paragraph

<pre> Defines preformatted text

<q> Defines a short quotation

<samp> Defines sample computer code text

<small> Defines small text

<span> Defines a section in a document

<s> Defines strikethrough text

<strike> Defines strikethrough text

<strong> Defines strong text

<sub> Defines subscripted text

<sup> Defines superscripted text

<u> Defines underlined text

Dark Reading encourages readers to engage in spirited, healthy debate, including taking us to task. However, Dark Reading moderates all comments posted to our site, and reserves the right to modify or remove any content that it determines to be derogatory, offensive, inflammatory, vulgar, irrelevant/off-topic, racist or obvious marketing/SPAM. Dark Reading further reserves the right to disable the profile of any commenter participating in said activities.

Disqus Tips To upload an avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. | View the list of supported HTML tags you can use to style comments. | Please read our commenting policy.
Subscribe to RSS



Related Content

 Sponsored by:
sponsor logo
The four rules of complete web protection
As an IT manager you've always known the web is a dangerous place. But with infections growing and the demands on your time and budget rising, it's time to revisit your strategy. This whitepaper discusses the major web threats and provides four rules to help you stay protected. When you follow them, these rules will also save you time and money.


Protecting personally identifiable information
Virtually every organization acquires, uses and stores personally identifiable information (PII) on their employees, customers and more. Organizations are expected to manage this private data appropriately and take every precaution to protect it from loss, unauthorized access or theft. This whitepaper examines the challenges companies face and the steps they can take to protect themselves against data breaches and ensure the safety of this sensitive information.


Endpoint Buyers Guide
This buyers guide provides independent research and test results to help you determine your endpoint protection requirements and identify the security vendor that best meets your needs.


Eight threats your antivirus won't stop
News headlines are a constant reminder that malware attacks and data loss are on the rise. This paper outlines eight common threats that traditional antivirus alone won't stop, and explains how to protect your organization using endpoint security.


Stopping Fake Antivirus: How to Keep Scareware Off Your Network
Download this whitepaper to get insight into where fake antivirus comes from and how it is distributed, what happens when a system is infected with fake antivirus, and how to stop this persistent threat from infecting your network and your users.


Twitter Facebook








  1. Cookies, Social Media And FireSheep
  2. SMB Guide To Credit Card Regulations, Part 2: The Low-Hanging Fruit
  3. HP And The Scary Corporate Fifth Column Concept
  4. Taking USB Attacks To The Next Level
  5. NoSQL: Not Much, Anyway
  1. Taking Cybersecurity Lessons To The Bank
  2. Researchers See Real-Time Phishing Jump
  3. 'BlackSheep' Sniffs Out Firesheep WiFi-Hacking
  4. Slideshow: Ten Free Security Monitoring Tools
  5. A Different Spin On Sleuthing Stuxnet
  6. M&A Activity Muddles Database Security
  1. Secure Managed Web Hosting Saves 960.gs from Malicious Hackers
  2. Access Governance as a Business Service: An Integrated Strategy for Automation with ITSM
  3. Business Driven Access Management and Governance: Simplifying the Delivery and Governance of Access Throughout
 
 


 
  Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Channel 9 Forums
CRN Blogs
Dr.Dobb's Portal: Blogs
Engadget
Gizmodo
GrokLaw 		  Lifehacker
Schneier on Security
Slashdot
TechCrunch
Techdirt
Techmeme
Valleywag
 
  February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
  May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008