Johannesburg, 04 May 2009
According to Symantec, the global swine flu outbreak has sparked a spamming frenzy.
Security experts at Symantec have been monitoring the spam and continue to analyse the underlying intentions of the associated messages.
Symantec says in the past such current-event spam campaigns included sending malicious messages, in which the e-mail user is lured into clicking malicious links that pretend to be a harmless link or a related video.
However, the security giant notes that this time around, it Is an e-mail address that the spammers are more interested in collecting.
One e-mail doing the rounds simply informs recipients of the disaster, using linked news headlines from reputable news agencies.
Symantec states in its report: “Users are asked whether they are in the US or Mexico and whether they know anybody who is affected by the outbreak. Users can share their experiences by filling in a form (URL provided) or reply back with their story along with an e-mail address and phone number.”
Symantec urges users to avoid opening unsubscribed news alerts, especially if they contain suspicious links or potentially malicious attachments from an unknown source.
According to the World Health Organisation, 985 cases of the swine flu virus have been officially reported across 20 countries. In Mexico, where the outbreak is thought to have originated, just over 100 people are believed to have died from the swine flu strain, although only 25 cases have been confirmed.
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