Angelina Jolie’s Popularity Exploited by Malware Campaign, says Threat Track Security

As per Threat Track Security, a new malware ridden spam email campaign is piggybacking on the fame and popularity of Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie.

Angelina was declared the highest paid actress of 2013 by Forbes and after about two days a fake CNN news article about this started circulating online.

Threat Track Security discovered that the spam email claiming to be CNN takes advantage of A-star's inclusion in the Forbes list to lure victims to click on links which will open a prompt dialogue for faux Adobe Flash player update for the reader to download ("update_flash_player.exe").

However, it is not an Adobe update but a malicious software program prominently known as malware and identified as a variant of Zbot/Zeus, which is a Trojan for stealing banking details.

Actually, the use of news and current events is known as "linkbait" which is part of a tactic called "social engineering" and this term is used in a technology which means to use "emotional" manipulation to reach a goal versus using technological know-how.

Security experts of security firm explain that these types of malware attacks are not new and Angelina Jolie malware attacks with fake news articles is just the latest version of software programs designed to siphon personal information from your computer.

The malware scam artists come up with such honey trap by using fake CNN logo and combing the "gossip" factor which everyone loves to read. They are relying on the recipient being curious enough to click the links sent with email.

Jolie was nicknamed in 2008 as "Queen of Spam" by some websites because she has been used as malware linkbait many times.

Interestingly, just like Angelina Jolie's Forbes's entry was leveraged by scammers in malware ridden spam email campaigns, similarly, Prince George birth was also used as malware linkbait on arrival of him (referring to the new born baby) of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge by cyber crooks.

The Australian Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy even issued a warning about email malware scams involving the Royal Baby and advised receivers of these emails to delete them immediately.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/6/2013