More than 275,000 emails containing a Trojan have been sent to UK businesses
since 6.20am this morning, giving hackers a three-hour window to infect machines
before a patch was issued at 9.20am, a security firm has claimed.
Security services firm
BlackSpider
Technologies said that today's incident is the second in four days that uses
social engineering techniques to appeal to recipients' curiosity.
The subject line of the infected emails, which purport to be sent by a work
colleague, implies that an attached photograph or article requires the
recipient's approval.
When the attachment is opened, however, the IRC.Backdoor.Trojan is downloaded
to the unwitting recipients' PCs.
The body of the email simply contains the word 'hello'. The subject lines
include: Photo and Article, Requesting Photo Approval, Photo Approval needed,
Photo Approval, Photo Approval Deadline, Photo Approval Required, Photo, Campus
Life, Campus Life Article approval deadline.
The attachment is a file named 'Photo and Article.zip', containing an
executable of the same name, which is an 8KB UPX packed executable.
James Kay, chief technology officer at BlackSpider, said: "After a relatively
quiet period, it appears that virus writers are again resorting to launching a
succession of attacks that rely on people's curiosity or egos.
"However quiet things seem, unprotected businesses are always at risk."
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