The spam email claims to offer free explicit images and
videos.
Experts at SophosLabs™ have warned of a
new spam campaign that claims to offer free explicit images and
videos, in an attempt to trick users into downloading a malicious
Trojan horse. According to Sophos, a weblink to the Psyme-DL Trojan is being
widely circulated within emails using a variety of subject lines,
invariably containing the words 'free' and 'porn'.
The emails each contain a single sentence and a link to the
malicious file. When clicked on, users are given a list of free
content to choose from, while the Trojan attempts to download
itself onto their machines. Sophos experts note that Psyme-DL
exploits a Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerability, MS06-014, and
when the weblink is accessed using Firefox, a message is displayed
requesting the user to change browser.
"Despite the numerous warnings users have probably heard about
safe computing and appropriate online behaviour, emails with racy
subject lines still seem hard to resist for some users," said
Carole Theriault,
senior security consultant for Sophos. "By infecting machines
belonging to users who thought they might steal a peak at some free
porn, this malware campaign leads victims down a rathole they might
feel embarrassed to be found in. The author of Psyme-DL is not just
looking to humiliate but is also attempting to take control of the
machines in order to spy, steal or cause havoc on PCs."
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.