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Back To School Malware Botnets
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2008-09-16
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Back to school season carries its own traditions: shopping, homework, decreased social networking, and now botnet malware attacks on US schools and government organizations.
 | | Back To School Malware Botnets |  |
Starting in early September, MessageLabs tells us, security experts began intercepting email-borne malware attacks on US schools and other state government organizations, especially in New Mexico, Virginia, Illinois, and Hawaii. The emails originated from 15 IP addresses in the former Soviet Union.
MessageLabs says this could be the result of a botnet "looking to expand." They believe the emails are disguised as Microsoft Windows Updates, and carry the Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.ele. The attacks may also be deploying the Antivirus XP 2008 malware.
As usual don't open attachments, especially the ones in these emails with subject lines marked "ALERT!" or "Warning." The attachments themselves are named update.exe, security.exe, and security851.exe.
Paul Wood, Senior Analyst for MessageLabs says September malware attacks targeting schools are not uncommon.
"It isn't entirely surprising to see attacks targeting schools at this time of year," he said. "We generally expect an increase in spam and malware once school is back in session. The education sector is often targeted hoping to catch students and teachers off guard and the bad guys know that executable attachments on email will likely be blocked so they are practicing due diligence and including in their email messages links to the malware hosted on the web."
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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