A new e-mail-borne malware outbreak appeared this weekend, where messages claim to be from a private detective who was hired to monitor the e-mail recipient, according to Commtouch.
The company first identified the outbreak on Saturday, 17 November.
"In order to prove their surveillance capabilities, the malware distributors have attached a 'recording` of the recipient`s phone call, which is actually a malware file," Commtouch explains.
Some of the e-mail subject lines, according to the company, include 'i`m monitoring you`, 'you`re being watched`, 'your phone is monitored`, and 'the tape of your conversation`.
The attachment is a password-protected, compressed file which is unleashed if recipients are concerned enough about their secret phone habits to expand the file, with the password provided in the body of the e-mail, warns Commtouch.
"Attachment names are numerical variations on 'call1105-10.rar`. The compressed file appears to be an mp3 sound file; however, if you look closely at it you will see that the file has many empty spaces after the mp3 'ending`, and the real file ending appears after these spaces. It is .scr, an executable favoured by malware writers," Commtouch explains.
"Preying on people`s guilty conscience with a virus is an ingenious trick of social engineering. The e-mail messages are written generically enough to fit almost every possible transgression one might wish to hide, ensuring that many people will open the attachments, unwittingly inviting malware onto their computers," concludes Rebecca Steinberg Herson, Commtouch VP of marketing.
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