Ebola Spreads To Email
Posted by Christian Nyakanyanga On September 08, 2014
Symantec goes on to say that they will add some extra news about "Terrorism" and a link to the "Untold" story. If a personal news notification from CNN about a conspiracy between the Ebola Virus and Al Qaeda doesn't get you excited I don't know what will. In a rush to unravel the "Untold" story, users will be redirected to a CNN web page (Fake) where they are asked for their email credentials (username and password). Once you submit this information you will be redirected to the real CNN Homepage and you will be none the wiser that your email credentials have now been stored in the Cyber criminal's database.
Symantec has advised "all users to be on guard for unsolicited, unexpected, or suspicious emails. If you are not sure of the email's legitimacy then don't respond to it, and avoid clicking on links in the message or opening attachments"
For the uninitiated a Phishing scam is an online scam that uses email to steal your personal information. For more details on the components of a Phishing Scam you can refer to our previous article (Something Phishy)
Cyber criminals like using the latest and hottest news to bait innocent victims, in the past it has been the Nelson Mandela Funeral, the Royal Wedding or SARS E-Filing. This time they are using the fear of Ebola to bait unsuspecting internet users into relinquishing control of their computers and their personal information.
Symantec has reported that there are 3 new variations of Ebola styled Malware attacks making the rounds aimed at stripping you of your personal information.
The first type of attack Symantec identified is fairly direct and simple.
You will receive an email with a false report about the virus with an attention grabbing headline like "Ebola Vaccine Found but not shared". What you receive after you open the email is not the cure to Ebola but an infection of Trojan.Zbot.
The second attack is a bit more detailed and complex. The Cyber criminals impersonate a phone company called Etisalat which has a presence in 18 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. They are really casting their Phishing net wide on this one. This email from the phone company claims to have a presentation on the Ebola virus, in a file called "EBOLA – ETISALAT PRESENTATION.pdf.zip". This one is bound to catch a lot of people out especially if you subscribe to that phone provider and live in a region likely to get hit by the real Ebola virus.
Once you download the file to conduct your in depth study of the Ebola virus all you will get is another Trojan calledTrojan.Blueso which can do the following on your computer:
In the third variation, users will receive an email from CNN with braking news about Ebola.