Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned of
a scam circulating in Australia which uses an almost-amusing twist
on conventional phishing email warnings. Instead of talking you
into going online to a bogus website to change your banking
credentials, the email strongly urges exactly the opposite. "Dear
Australian Bank Clients. You must NOT Update or Confirm Your
Account information," it warns.
Instead, the email claims to be from News Limited and shouts out
the unlikely story that "this week all AUSTRALIAN BANKS WILL BE
CLOSED." Clicking on the link and visiting the bogus news website
infects internet users with a phishing Trojan horse designed to
steal login details from customers of the Commonwealth Bank and
e-gold.
The emails tell internet users that their banks
are closing for a week.
"The story is so hyperbolic and so unlikely that it looks and
smells like a good old conspiracy theory, with a website to back it
up," says Paul
Ducklin, Sophos's Head of Technology, Asia Pacific. "Many
conspiracy theory sites are intriguing, if ill-informed, but not
overtly malicious. This can make them popular for believers and
unbelievers alike. But readers who are inquisitive and who follow
the web link in this email will be visiting a fake news site which
aims to infect them with a phishing Trojan."
Once again, Ducklin warns users to be suspicious of emails which
sound too good (or too bad!) to be true, and reiterates the
watchphrase of the Internet Industry Association (IIA): "don't buy,
don't try, don't reply".
"Not trying and not replying to spam means more than just
avoiding a direct email response," explains Ducklin. "You need to
be careful not to follow up on any call-to-action in unwanted
email. After all, if you don't trust the original email, why would
you trust information such as web links, telephone numbers or
street addresses in that email?"
Sophos recommends that companies protect their email gateways
with a consolidated solution to defend
against viruses, spyware and spam, as well as secure their desktop
and servers with automatically updated protection.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.