For distributing of malware they tend to use spam in conjunction with social engineering methods

PandaLabs has discovered that for distributing of malicious software they tend to use the combination of spam and social engineering methods. For the past few days there have appeared already several examples. The most new code is distributing in e-mails allegedly warning of the malicious attack (with such titles as: Wormsâ€™ Attack! or Spyware Attack!) but actually they contain Nurech.Z worm. For messages to look more plausible, in the area â€œsenderâ€ they indicate sources to which the user has trust, for example Customer Support. Another one of the latest species uses as enticements the photos of Britney Spears. A user receives a message titled like â€œNaked Britney Spears and Paris Hiltonâ€ or â€œHot photos of Britney Spearsâ€. Users open the message, and find a few erotic photos of the singer. However, with a simple mouse click on the pictures they practically download malicious code to their computer. This worm exploits the vulnerability in Microsoft ANI files with the purpose of distribution. It also downloads other variants of malicious codes on an infected PC. The third example is similar to the first two, though it has appeared a few days earlier. Only the main character is changed. In this case, as an enticement they have used the photos of porno-star Jane Jameson. By this they try to make the users to pass to the reference, hidden in the photographs. The result is the same - for infection the computer and downloading other malicious software this code exploits that vulnerability in ANI files. â€œBesides, there were postings of e-mails with such themes as â€œHot photos of naked Paris Hiltonâ€ and so forth. The purpose is the same â€“ to make the user click on the reference to fall into a trap. That is the method of social engineeringâ€, - explains Luis Corrons, the technical director of PandaLabs. For distributing of the worm Grum.A they have used some other bate. This malicious code is distributed in e-mails with the proposal to test the beta-version of Internet Explorer 7. As in previous cases, the message contains a photo by clicking on which you supposedly can have access to beta-version of IE 7. â€œWhy use spam for distributing the malicious software? On the one hand, unwanted mail falls into the boxes of users in large amounts and thus increases the chances of success. On the other hand, this is the way cyber criminals can convince users to download an infected file themselves, wherewith the anti-virus solutions cannot found or remove malicious enclosuresâ€, - explains Luis Corrons.