Making good of the outbreak of Ebola Virus, some malwares are attempting to make some quick gains by phishing emails with the news of Ebola Virus that attracts potential victims to click on it and thereby compromising the user's PCs.
Symantec, a security solutions company warned people of the existence of different variety of email attacks that have been doing rounds riding on the news of Ebola Virus.
Many of these phishing mails attract their victims with news of the trending problems concerned with Ebola Virus and if users either click on the links or try to share them the harmful malware will affect the system, if there is no PC protection.
According to Symantec there are four common types of emails that users must be aware of:
1. Emails with Fake Ebola Virus reports - These kinds of mails will ask users to click on the link to read more about the subject matter. Falling for this will infect the system with a Trojan.Zbot malware. The malware has the ability to run on different version of the Windows OS and is usually designed to steal information regarding a person's usernames, passwords, banking details, etc.
2. Emails posing as a Major Telecommunications Service Provider - Emails imitating some of the major telecommunications service provider are sent out to people, offering detailed presentation on the Ebola Virus. These emails will have zip files attached to them, titled 'EBOLA – PRESENTATION.pdf.zip', which will infect the system in case the file is opened.
Though touted as a low-risk virus that will stay dormant on the web browser, the malware has been designed to inject W32.Spyrat on the web browser of the unsuspecting victim. This W32.Spyrat will give cybercriminals remote access to your system allowing them in the process to record from the web camera, capture screenshots, delete files and folders and install and uninstall files from your PC.
3. Emails riding on the News of cure for Ebola Virus - Many malwares are making use of the news on the experimental Ebola drug Zmapp that claims that the cure for Ebola has been found and asks users to forward this message to people in their contacts lists.
These emails carry a malware as an email attachment known as Backdoor.Breut. These types of malwares are known to recode your keystroke and might download corrupted files on your PC.
4. Emails carrying Fake CNN campaign on Ebola Virus: These types of mails usually carry headlines like 'Ebola virus being used by terrorists' or something similar to that. It goes on to give users a brief of the story and will contain links to some of the "untold story."
These emails will also have links on "How-to" avoid the virus and take precautions, there will be another link saying "targeted" regions affected by the virus. The links are the baits that bring in malicious content into thus affecting the system.
(Source: Tech 2)
