<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>May 1, 2009
H1N1 flu outbreak
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Beware flu cyber crooks <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
</TD><TD vAlign=bottom>
The words 'swine' and 'flu' had essentially not been seen together in spam prior to the third week of April, David Marcus of McAfee said in a blog posting at the computer security firm's website. -- PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->
SAN FRANCISCO - CYBER crooks are capitalising on influenza fears with torrents of e-mail promising 'Swine flu' news but delivering malware or dubious offers for potency drugs or penis enlargement.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>
Crime groups likely culprits
Crime groups involved with Conficker, Storm and other computer viruses that take control of people's machines and weave them into 'botnet' armies are most likely behind the flu spam, said Trend Micro global director of education David Perry.
'You may have noticed that pirates have been replaced by swine flu as the disaster of the moment on television stations,' Perry said. 'It was all by inevitable that the bad guys would pick up on this.'
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'Zombie' computers infected with a dreaded Conficker virus that became an online scourge this year are among machines being used to spew flu spam crafted to trick e-mail recipients, according to computer security firm Trend Micro.
'The thing making it worse is the misinformation out there about swine flu,' Trend Micro threats research manager Jamz Yaneza said on Thursday.
'These guys have picked up on all the fears people have. With all the hysteria of swine flu, some people click on these e-mails.' Subject boxes of spam email feature lines such as 'Swine Flu Outbreak!' and 'Madonna Catches Swine Flu!' in order to grab people's interest in a tactic referred to by hackers as 'social engineering.'
The words 'swine' and 'flu' had essentially not been seen together in spam prior to the third week of April, David Marcus of McAfee said in a blog posting at the computer security firm's website.
The word combination surged in spam on April 27, with half the e-mail apparently coming from sources in Germany, Brazil and the United States, according to Marcus.
McAfee said it has also seen keywords 'swine' and 'flu' used to direct Internet users to a Russia-based website booby trapped with a computer virus. 'Malware writers, spammers and scammers are low lives,' Mr Marcus wrote. 'They will use any high media event or high impact news story to push their wares including the sickness and misery of others. Stay vigilant and stay safe.' -- AFP
H1N1 flu outbreak
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Beware flu cyber crooks <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
The words 'swine' and 'flu' had essentially not been seen together in spam prior to the third week of April, David Marcus of McAfee said in a blog posting at the computer security firm's website. -- PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->
SAN FRANCISCO - CYBER crooks are capitalising on influenza fears with torrents of e-mail promising 'Swine flu' news but delivering malware or dubious offers for potency drugs or penis enlargement.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>
Crime groups likely culprits
Crime groups involved with Conficker, Storm and other computer viruses that take control of people's machines and weave them into 'botnet' armies are most likely behind the flu spam, said Trend Micro global director of education David Perry.
'You may have noticed that pirates have been replaced by swine flu as the disaster of the moment on television stations,' Perry said. 'It was all by inevitable that the bad guys would pick up on this.'
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'Zombie' computers infected with a dreaded Conficker virus that became an online scourge this year are among machines being used to spew flu spam crafted to trick e-mail recipients, according to computer security firm Trend Micro.
'The thing making it worse is the misinformation out there about swine flu,' Trend Micro threats research manager Jamz Yaneza said on Thursday.
'These guys have picked up on all the fears people have. With all the hysteria of swine flu, some people click on these e-mails.' Subject boxes of spam email feature lines such as 'Swine Flu Outbreak!' and 'Madonna Catches Swine Flu!' in order to grab people's interest in a tactic referred to by hackers as 'social engineering.'
The words 'swine' and 'flu' had essentially not been seen together in spam prior to the third week of April, David Marcus of McAfee said in a blog posting at the computer security firm's website.
The word combination surged in spam on April 27, with half the e-mail apparently coming from sources in Germany, Brazil and the United States, according to Marcus.
McAfee said it has also seen keywords 'swine' and 'flu' used to direct Internet users to a Russia-based website booby trapped with a computer virus. 'Malware writers, spammers and scammers are low lives,' Mr Marcus wrote. 'They will use any high media event or high impact news story to push their wares including the sickness and misery of others. Stay vigilant and stay safe.' -- AFP
