Spam tapping Japanese disasters goes through the roof

18 March 2011

Newswires are reporting that the volume of spam – leading to infected and scamware websites – has gone through the roof this week, but M86 Security says that it has seen a spam campaign that imitates a Twitter notification.

This approach to spamming internet users is one of the first times that a Tweet format has been used for a spamming email, Infosecurity notes. But Phil Hay, M86's lead security researcher, notes that, whilst the subject of the spam varies, sadly, most of them focus on the recent tragic events in Japan.

The links on one spam campaign, he said, lead to a page hosting obfuscated malicious JavaScript, which seeks to exploit a Java vulnerability.

Allowing the message to execute, said Hay, meant that the host computer was immediately compromised, added to a botnet, and some not-so-subtle fake anti-virus malware was installed.

"The spam is originating from one of the Cutwail spambot variants. We managed to get this template from Cutwail command and control traffic, which clearly shows the Twitter template being used", he wrote in his latest security blog.

"With the rise in social networking, we have been seeing increased use of fake 'notifications' being used by spammers", he added, advising that, as ever, internet users should remain on guard, especially when it comes to Twitter 'notifications'.

Source and credit : http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/16715/spam-tapping-japanese-disasters-goes-through-the-roof/