Symantec warns of WikiLeaks malware
Security experts are warning web users to be on their guard after discovering two attacks using the WikiLeaks scandal as a social engineering hook.
Symantec Hosted Services malware operations engineer Tony Millington wrote in a blog post that a new virus has been disguised as a PDF attachment named 'WikiLeaks' in a highly targeted attack aimed at a government body.
A brief sentence in the body of the email alludes to "the release of thousands of confidential US cables" designed to persuade the user into clicking on the malicious attachment to find out more. "The email had been sent from a compromised account and, as is often the case, the social engineering didn't have a lot of thought behind it," said Millington. "The attachment has an encrypted executable embedded in it and heavily obfuscated JavaScript designed to decode, drop and run the exe."
