New Spam and Virus Attacks
Postini and Symantec, antivirus vendors, have reported increased attacks in the month of April. The main culprit is the Storm Email that purports to contain news of terrible weather. When opened, the virus installs botnet software that allows a remote user to take control of your machines. Once access is gained they will do something slightly different. Instead of sending emails to try to sell you something, they spoof really great news and a stock tip. Once the stock takes off, the spammer cashes out and everyone else just gets burned. They are calling this Spam 2.0.
A good summary of this attack along with a summary of the SEC response is available on Yahoo News.
Keep your antivirus, antispyware and firewalls up to date and your eyes open. And don’t fall for any anonymous stock tips!