Industry News Home More stories like this... RSS Feed

Hackers take advantage of Obama publicity

Internet users following the ongoing US presidential battle between the Democrats and the Republicans have been warned to watch out for email scams claiming to provide links to a sex video of Barack Obama.

E-mails purporting to be from infonews@obama.com bearing titles such as 'Obama Sex Video!!!' are in circulation, according online security specialist Sophos.

According to the security expert, the messages are spammed and loaded with malicious code and viruses and opening them could lead to one's security being compromised.

"Malware authors, hackers and virus writers, of course, are never slow to jump on an opportunity and today we have been seeing malicious emails spammed out claiming to link to a sex video of Barack Obama," states Graham Cluley in a blog entry.

"Unusually for a malware attack however, the malicious code is installed while you are watching an X-rated video (albeit not one starring Barack Obama)."

Emails stating: "msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain told lies to win votes", which appeared last month, were also highlighted by Sophos as being the handiwork of hackers.

PC Tools AntiVirus removes viruses from your PC and ensures that you are safe from further infections. Visit www.pctools.com to upgrade your protection