[Malware Warning] Be Assured, Obama has not refused to be the President
US President Elect Barack Obama will be taking his office in less than four day and this is definitely going to make headlines. Taking advantage of this, many cybercriminals too are trying their best to make use of this event in their own way. Many websites hosted by cyber criminals, known for planting malware and spyware into your computers are reporting News about Barack Obama refusing to be the President of America. Please, be assured, nothing like this has happened.
How can such Websites Implant a Malware in My Computer?
Well, this is how it works, Such websites through various tricks, get the users landed onto their professionally created landing pages. These pages look so real, that you might be forged to believe in the new they report. Once at the news, they might ask you to download and install a missing codec.
Image: Malware Websites making use of Barack Obama Inaugration event.
These missing codecs are usually nothing else but malwares. Therefore, always be very careful about the links you click from your emails and other websites. They might have been created to serve specific evil purposes.
Let me add that if you are lured into this trap and are using an incorrectly protected PC that you will be infected by malware detected as W32/Waledac.gen.b
What can i do to stay safe from such harmful attacks and exploits?
In general these are the basic steps you should be following to stay away from such scams :
- Always go through the URL of the website. A closer look at the URL can certainly give you clues with regards to the fraudulent websites.
- Never reply to emails asking for your bank account number, internet user details etc. Remember NO BANK asks you for such information. If they do, CHANGE YOUR BANK.
- The old saying “When in doubt, talk”, holds true here as well. If you are in a doubt about the email/website, just take the phone and call up the call center of the service to get an explanation on your doubt.
- Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing email. Most organizations have information on their websites about where to report problems.
- Don’t open email attachments sent to you by strangers. Email attachments can have programs which can affect your computers once opened.
- Always follow steps to a healthy PC. You can read my previous post 4 steps to a Healthy PC to learn more on this.
- Always keep your Anti Virus Softwares, Spywares and Firewalls updated. You can use Update Checker which happens to be a free service for this. Also read my previous post Use Update Checker to Keep your Softwares UPDATED.
- Have a good Antivirus and Spyware software installed.
Source: AvertLabs
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