Celebrity deaths touch off spam frenzy

Spammers are capitalising on the death of Michael Jackson

Security experts are warning users to brace for a flood of spam regarding the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

The US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) has already received reports of spam and malicious email attacks exploiting the deaths of actress Fawcett and pop legend Jackson.

Shortly after news of Jackson's death broke yesterday, users flooded onto the web for more information. The resulting crush of traffic brought down popular web sites such as Google and Twitter as users rushed to obtain and share information.

Spammers and malware writers are now also expected to flood the internet with their own contributions, according to experts.

"Every time a disaster happens or news about some celebrity reaches the media, malware writers try to take advantage of it," wrote McAfee researcher Guilherme Venere in a blog posting. "Watch out for spam offering links to 'news' or 'pictures' of deceased celebrities."

US-CERT is also advising users to avoid clicking on any links or attachments contained in unsolicited messages, and to install and maintain updated anti-virus software.