Newswise — Throughout the month of July, spam messages using fake news headlines have been luring visitors to virus-laden Web sites that will infect the unwary Websurfer with a simple clink on any of the links. Beginning last night a new twist has made it much more likely that visitors will fall prey. The spam messages now sport a CNN.com logo, and instead of using made up headlines, are copying the headlines from other video news services around the Web.
UAB's Spam Data Mine, which collects millions of email messages used to provide investigators with spam intelligence and determine new attack methods, reports that nearly 10 percent of all e-mails received last night had the subject "CNN Top 10 Spam", and pointed to more than 25 Web sites that had been hacked to infect their visitors. Several major anti-virus providers were unable to detect the spam as of this morning.
To learn more about this threat, view the article by Gary Warner, UAB's Director of Computer Forensics at:
http://garwarner.blogspot.com/2008/08/cnn-lends-authenticity-to-news-spam.html
Just be certain not to click on any of the links.
NOTE: We are the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Please use our full name on first reference and UAB thereafter.
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