Hi,
I got this from an accessible devices list.
Sharon
Although this is a little outside the scope of our normal posts we believe
it to be valuable information.
Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham
Released: Wed 26-Dec-2007, 14:00 ET
Watch Out for Holiday E-Mails Warns UAB's Computer Forensics Researchers
Description
Last year security researchers saw the creation of the world's largest
"botnet",
or collection of
personal computers being controlled by hackers," said Gary Warner, director
of Research
in Computer
Forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). "This botnet,
called
"the Storm Botnet,"
has at various times included more than 3 million infected computers,"
Warner said.
"One of the
primary ways machines became infected was by users clicking on e-mails that
were
often associated
with holidays, including Valentine's Day, Labor Day, Fourth of July and
others.
Newswise - Clicking on Web links in holiday-related e-mail messages is a
dangerous
practice that
could put your identity or your computer in the hands of criminals.
Last year security researchers saw the creation of the world's largest
"botnet",
or collection of
personal computers being controlled by hackers," said Gary Warner, director
of Research
in Computer
Forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
"This botnet, called "the Storm Botnet," has at various times included more
than
3 million infected
computers," Warner said. "One of the primary ways machines became infected
was by
users clicking on
e-mails that were often associated with holidays, including Valentine's Day,
Labor
Day, Fourth of
July and others.
Over the Christmas holiday, the creators of the "Storm Worm" sent e-mails
with dozens
of Christmas
and New Year's-related greeting messages. A computer that clicks on the link
in the
e-mail message
will be attacked by malware, which tries to join the computer to the
criminal's Botnet.
Once joined,
the computer begins sending spam messages for the criminals, and may be used
in other
types of
cybercrimes.
"The same advice that we normally give applies here," Warner said. "Clicking
on Web
links in e-mail
messages is a dangerous practice, which could give your identity, or in this
case,
your computer, to
the criminals."
For more details, including lists of the "Christmas" and "New Years"e-mail
subject
lines, see:
http://www.cis.uab.edu/forensics/stormy.new.year.html
FYI: The UAB Computer Forensics program is a partnership between the UAB
Computer
& Information
Science Department and the UAB Department of Justice Science. Warner and his
colleagues
research
spam, phishing, malware, identity theft, and related CyberCrime issues.
For more details, please see:
http://www.cis.uab.edu/forensics/stormy.new.year.html
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and
www.accessible-devices.com
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