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Targeted messages on the rise, expert warns

Internet users are being subjected to targeted attacks by cyber crooks that have turned to sending out professional-looking messages that come laden with malware, it has emerged.

Online security firm F-Secure has revealed that it is increasingly discovering the attacks, all of which "use known vulnerabilities to drop backdoors to take over the computer".

However, the company is not yet sure of the frequency of the assaults, saying some of them have been spotted only once worldwide.

"So whomever got hit by these, it wasn't just bad luck and it wasn't just a coincidence," said the firm, which illustrated its point using one that looked like a legitimate in-house purchase agreement.

However, this particular document "drops a backdoor that connects to the lemondtree.freetcp.com XLS file", the security vendor said.

According to an article from eweek.com, such attacks appear to be carried out following rigorous research by the crooks, who even get the names of real company executives to ensure their documents look as legitimate as possible.

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