Malware spread through lunar eclipse message

Friday, 22 Feb 2008. Categories: USA

Cybercriminals hoping to spread further malware have been exploiting the lunar eclipse to encourage victims in the US to open compromised emails.

Victims were hit by a message which offered a video of the lunar eclipse but in fact delivered a virus to their machines.

Mike Lettman, director of information security for the Division of Enterprise Technology, where several staff inadvertently opened the infected emails, told the Associated Press around 4,000 employees had been sent the compromised message.

"It was trying to use our PCs as email senders," he explained.

Some viruses are created to allow hackers to use someone else's PC to send mass spamming emails and launch attacks at other computers.

Often the first machines to be attacked following a virus infection are the PC user's family and friends as the malware uses their address book or network to spread itself.

By opening infected files or logging on to the internet without adequate anti-virus software, a computer user is open to malware attack within minutes.

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Malware spread through lunar eclipse message

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