Computer users should be on their guard against
a new spam campaign that claims another earthquake has just
occurred in China that could derail the upcoming
Olympic Games.
Samples intercepted by security software firm Sophos contain the
subject line "Million dead in Chinese quake" and a link to a .cn
domain webpage that claims that an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the
Richter scale has hit Beijing, causing millions of casualties and
putting the 2008 Olympic Games at risk.
To see additional details of the disaster, the webpage contains
a link to a video. In fact, when clicked on, the link will download
damaging malware known as
Nuwar-E onto the user's computer.
"The recent Chinese earthquake is still so fresh in people's
minds that many computer users will not think twice before opening
this e-mail and clicking on the link," said Carole Theriault,
senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"The spammers are using one of the most common tricks in the
book in an attempt to spread their malware, and if people continue
to open unsolicited e-mails, unfortunately the spammers will
continue too."